Happy?
by Breezi
Summary: Sequel to 'Male Driven Fact Based Logic'
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: **Well, this is the sequel to "Male Driven Fact Based Logic?" so if you haven't read that, I strongly suggest you do before reading this. This is just the prologue, kind easing into Lisa and Jackson's day to day lives. Let me know how you feel about it.

**Disclaimer:** Just for the record, I do not own _Red Eye _or any of the characters therein. If I did, that would mean I owned Cillian Murphy and...well...that only happens in dreams.

**Happy?**

**Prologue:**

Sunlight poured in through the large picture window of the bedroom, rousing Lisa from what was a wonderful night's slumber. She yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes with her knuckles, casting a glance to the opposite side of the bed. It was empty. Big surprise there. With a groan, she stretched her arms and kicked the covers off of her legs and climbed out of bed. She slowly made her way into the bathroom and turned the shower on to let the water warm up as she brushed her teeth. There was a sudden crash that caught her attention and drew her out of the bathroom. Another loud banging sounded and she dropped her toothbrush and flew from the bedroom and down the stairs. What she saw brought her to an abrupt halt at the entrance of the living room. Her breath caught in the back of her throat and her hand flew to her mouth to suppress the noise that was threatening to burst free from her lips. There in the middle of the living room floor lay her husband, Jackson, his body bent at odd angles, his face a distorted version of its usual handsome self. One of his arms was being forcibly held down by the weight of a small three year old little girl with bright red curls and big green eyes who was giggling and every so often swatting at Jackson's smiling face. His other arm was wrapped around the mid section of a five year old girl who was squealing with delight at his fingers tickled her ribcage. She too had big round green eyes, but instead of red curls she had long straight shining dark brown locks of hair. And there, jumping up and down on Jackson's bouncing legs was a two year old little boy with dark brown, almost black hair, and wide startling blue eyes. Lisa giggled into the palm of her hand at the sight. Little three year old Mariah looked up from where she sat on her daddy's arm and waved one tiny little hand at Lisa.

"Hi, mommy!" She chirped.

"You kids take it easy on your father, huh." Lisa laughed, waving back at her little cherub of a daughter before turning and heading back upstairs for her shower.

She stood in the tub, letting the warm water wash over her, beating down in a soothing rhythm over her muscles, and allowing her mind to tell her just how fortunate her life really was. God had blessed her with a successful, albeit unusual husband, who had given her three beautiful children. Five year old Luhki, three year old Mariah, and two year old Jackson Jr. She smiled at the image of the all downstairs as it still hovered freshly in her mind. She worked up a thick lather of body wash on her loofa sponge and ran it up her arm to her shoulder when she felt warm fingers land on top of her hand and an arm slipped around her waist, pulling her back against a lean, solid form. She nestled back into him, her head resting perfectly between his chin and collarbone as Jackson took the loofa from her hand and kissed the top of her ear. Lisa lost herself in his scent as Jackson began washing the back of her neck and shoulders, pushing her hair to the side and massaging the small of her neck with his thumb. It almost seemed like a dream when Lisa thought about how her life had changed, like it was all too good to be true.

The first year that she and Jackson had been married, Lisa had taken leave from work so that she could travel with him wherever he happened to be assigned to go. She had even helped him with a few jobs as long as they didn't require him to kill anybody...but that had all ended the moment that they had found out that Luhki would soon be arriving in their world. When they had discovered that Lisa was pregnant, there were so many things that they had to take into consideration. First and foremost had been Jackson himself. Neither of them had been certain as to whether or not he was the 'daddy' type, but he didn't want to losr Lisa and she didn't want to be without him either. So, they had agreed to wait until after the baby was born and see how Jackson handled it before they made any rash decisions. Sure enough, when Jackson held that little baby in his arms and she looked up at him with those big green eyes that were so like Lisa's, there was no way in hell anyone was ever gonna take _his _baby girl away from him. It had even been his idea to name her Luhki because he said that that was how he had felt when she was born.

The next thing on the discussion panel had been his career. He refused to quit and Lisa knew better than to even ask for him to, so they had compromised. When their children were old enough to understand the concept of a job, they would be told that their daddy was a lawyer. And if Jackson were ever to bring his work home with him, Lisa, who unlike her husband had damn fine aim, would shoot him in the head with the nickel plated 9 mm that he had bought for her for their first anniversary. Through the course of their relationship, she had learned to speak Jackson's language: threats of bodily harm.

Besides, Jackson's career did have its benefits. Money was never an issue for them and the only reason that Lisa continued to work was because if she didn't, she was certain that she would go insane. Her co-workers had shamelessly inquired as to how Lisa had managed to afford to trade in her modest Honda Civic for a brand new Mercedes SUV. Lisa had simply smiled coyly and replied, "Wedding present."

When Lisa became pregnant with Mariah, Jackson bought them a house in the suburbs where his kids could learn to ride their bikes and Lisa wouldn't sit around worrying that they were going to get themselves run over by a car. So, she had this nice big house in a fantastic school district and a husband who would periodically vanish without a word in the middle of the night only to resurface a few days later, sometimes with fresh new wounds on his body which Lisa would never ask him about. He wouldn't take jobs that required him to be away for months at a time anymore. They either had to require less than forty-eight hours of preparatory work or they had to something that he could prepare for from the offices that he kept in Miami.

Then, Jack Jr. was born and they had argued vehemently over his name. Lisa had desperately wanted to name him Jackson on account of his uncanny resemblance to his father, but Jackson had been adamant that he did not want his son to go through the same Jack the Ripper shit that he had gone through. In the end, Lisa had won the arguement. She had known that she would.

Joe came to visit often, and even stayed over for some of the nights that Jackson was out of town and Lisa was home alone and feeling a bit antsy. She never knew where Jackson had gone until after he would return home and tell her. Joe and Jackson got along surprisingly well for two men who at one time had tried to kill each other. They shared similar tastes and opinions on things, which terrified Lisa to her very core. She would never forget the time that she had come home from grocery shopping and found a note from Jackson stating that he had taken her father to the dog track. In a million years she would never have figured her father for the type to go to a dog race. She knew that Jackson had a weakness for them, but not her dad. They had come waltzing in at three in the morning, laughing and stinking of scotch and expensive cigars. Lisa would have been infuriated had the sight not been so damned hilarious.

Jackson spun her around to face him and pressed her back against the shower wall, dropping the loofa and taking a strand of her hair between his fingers to play with. Water was dripping from his long bangs and running down his cheeks. Damn, he looked good wet. He leaned in toward her, his lips just brushing against hers when the bathroom door opened with a loud creak and tiny voice said, "Mommy?"

Lisa pushed on Jackson's chest and slipped out of his grip, popping her head around the curtain to look into the curious little elfin face of Luhki. "Yes, honey? Hi!" she said, plastering a big smile on her face.

"Where's daddy?" Luhki asked.

Lisa pressed her lips together and fought off the urge to look over her shoulder at the smirk that she knew was currently on Jackson's face. "Did you check the bedroom?"

"Uh-huh." Luhki nodded, "He's not there. Will you help me find him?"

"Of course I will, baby." Lisa said and held up two fingers, "Give mommy two seconds, okay?"

"Kay!" The little girl chimed before bouncing out of the room, her brown hair swishing back and forth behind her.

Lisa straightened and turned back around to glare at her husband, who was, as she had known he would be, grinning from ear to ear and trying very hard not to laugh. "Don't you know what a door lock is for?"

"In my experience...picking."

Lisa smacked him in the chest. "Funny. Think is she had walked in maybe two seconds later. That could've traumatized her!"

"Her?" Jackson said, shutting off the water and stepping out of the tub onto the rug, offering his hand to help Lisa, "Or you?"

Lisa narrowed her eyes at him as he wrapped a towel around her shoulders. "Possibly both." she quipped and stomped out of the bathroom to assist her daughter in locating her daddy, who just happened to pop up out of the laundry room with a fresh shirt and damp hair.

**Author's Note:** Well, be sure to let me know what you think even though I know it hasn't really gotten going, yet.


	2. Chapter One: Dinner Plans

**Author's Note: **Thanks to my reviewers for the vote of confidence. Here's the first chapter. It's kind of slow as I'm still establishing their lives, so bare with me for a while. It will pick up. Thanks again and don't forget to review!

**Chapter One: Dinner Plans**

Lisa came through the door and was immediately set upon by her rambunctious three year old. She instantly dropped her purse to the ground on reflex and scooped the little girl up into her arms, swinging her up above her head. Mariah kicked her legs and spread her arms out like she was a plane.

"Hey, baby!" she exclaimed.

Just as she moved to set Mariah back down on her feet, Luhki came bounding into the room. "Mommy! Mommy! Maggie taught me how to make bracelets! Look it!"

"She did?" Lisa chimed, kneeling down so that she was eye level with her daughter.

"Yep! See how pretty?" Luhki exclaimed, presenting her wrists to allow Lisa a better view of her accomplishments.

"Wow." Lisa said brightly, fingering the strands of beads and threads that enveloped the little girl's arm. "Those are beautiful. Where is Maggie?"

"Hi." said the seventeen year old towheaded babysitter as she emerged from around the corner. Lisa straightned from her kneeling position to greet her. "Sorry, Mrs. Rippner. I didn't hear you come in. I was just giving Jack Jr. a bath, wasn't I little guy?"

The miniature version of Jackson came toddling out from behind the sitter's legs sporting a mop of damp hair. He then proceeded to latch onto Lisa's legs, nearly causing her to topple on top of him. Instead, she leaned forward and swept him up from the floor and kissed both of his red chubby cheeks, breathing in his fresh clean scent. "Mmm, someone smells good!" she said into the baby's hair before turning back to Maggie, "It's fine, dear. How were they today? Did they give you much trouble?"

"Not even a little." Maggie replied, "Okay, so, everyone's been fed and bathed. I know you have people coming over for dinner tonight, so if you need me to stay and help you get them all into bed..."

"Oh, goodness no. That's fine, honey. You're such a life saver, I couldn't live with myself if I held you prisoner for an entire Friday night."

"Oh, no problem. Is, uh, Mr. Rippner gonna be home soon?"

"Who knows?" Lisa said, "His hours are crazier than he is."

"Oh." Maggie said, doing a very poor job at hiding her disappointment.

Lisa chuckled. Maggie had a hopeless crush on Jackson and Lisa thought that it was about the cutest thing she had ever seen. She knew that most women in her position would probably feel a little threatened by the prospect, after all, Maggie was the cute little blonde cheerleader type. Maybe Lisa even would have been had it not been for the fact that Jackson had looked at the girl maybe twice in the entire four months that she had been working for them. She grinned at the young babysitter. "Do you need a lift home?"

"No." Maggie said, "Charlie from the video store is picking me up on his motorcycle. He's got a lip ring. So hot."

"Okay." Lisa laughed. "If you wanna grab your paycheck, it's in my purse."

Maggie picked Lisa's purse up off the floor and withdrew her paycheck. She set the purse on the table and slipped into her jacket as she moved to open the door, but stopped when Lisa called after her. "Oh, honey, wear a helmet."

Maggie giggled into her sleeve, "Sure thing, Mrs. Rippner. Hey, have a nice dinner." With that, she out the door.

Not two minutes later, the door opened once again and Jackson entered. "There was just some kid with a lip ring in our driveway."

"Oh, God. You didn't kill him did you?" Lisa asked.

"I was just about to," Jackson said in all seriousness, "but then Maggie came running out and started making out with him. So, I just kind of slipped past them without drawing attetnion to myself."

"That probably wasn't much of a challenge."

"No. Not at all." Jackson grinned, shrugging out of his jacket and lacing his hands around his pretty wife's waist. She still held Jack Jr. propped against her hip and Jackson kissed the top of the boy's head and stroked a hand over it affectionately. "Hey, big guy. You gonna be just like daddy when you grow up?"

"God I hope not." Lisa muttered.

Jackson chuckled deep in the back of his throat and pressed his lips to Lisa's cheek. "You smell nice."

"That's Jack Jr." Lisa said, her green eyes flashing at him.

"Down!" The boy cried as if on cue and Lisa let him slide down her leg to the floor where he began running as soon as he feet hit the ground.

Jackson pulled Lisa to him and nuzzled into the nook of her neck, kissing his way up to her earlobe. They hadn't been that way for a moment when, "Daddy! Daddy! Come and see what Maggie showed me today!" Luhki exclaimed as she came bursting into the room. She was a daddy's girl through and through and being Jackson's first born, he doted on her. There was nothing that he would deny her. He spoiled his younger children just the same, but Luhki was such a perfect combination of Lisa and himself that it took his breath away every time he looked at her.

As Mariah and Luhki dragged Jackson into the living room in order to really compete for his attention, Lisa searched out and carried a very sleepy Jack Jr. to his room. He was more or less falling asleep in her arms and the poor little guy was not happy about it. He whined and wimpered and rubbed his plump little fists over his eyes. Lisa rocked him in her arms and shushed him gently, humming lullabies to him. When she lay him down in his 'big boy' bed that still had sides so that he wouldn't roll out into the floor at some point during the night and he looked up at her with those big blue eyes, she felt her breath catch in her throat. It never seized to amaze her. He was so like Jackson; so like him that the little boy's eyes practically glowed in the dark just like his daddy's.

"Are you ready to go to sleep, little man?" she asked.

"No." The two year old said adamantly, his lower lip jutting out and his tubby little arms crossing as he mimicked what he had seen countless adults do. He leapt to his feet on the springy mattress and wrapped his arms around his mommy's neck, determined not to let go. He had done the same movement a million times before, so Lisa did as she always did and carried him over to the rocking chair in the corner, wrapping him up in the soft blanky that he would not sleep without and proceeded to rock and hum to him until he fell asleep in her arms. After which, she tucked him into his bed and crept from the room without the slightest noise, careful not to wake him.

She made her way to the kitchen and, to the comforting sounds of her two daughters and her husband laughing in the living room, she began poaching a batch of salmon for dinner. Soon, the lovely noises of her family quieted down and she could hear the television more clearly than them. Dinner was just about ready, so she wiped her hands on her apron and went to check on Jackson and the girls.

When she got back into the living room, she found her little Mariah lying on the couch, her legs splayed up on the armrest, one hand resting on her chest, the other thrown over the edge of the cushions. Her eyes were closed, her mouth open with a little bit of drool running down from the corner. She was breathing in and out in a slow rhythmic way and Lisa knew that she had fallen asleep. Jackson was at the other end of the sofa, watching the evening news with Luhki curled up in his lap trying her best to stay awake and pay attention to the show that she did not understand. Lisa cleared her throat, drawing Jackson's attention. He nodded and lifted Luhki from his lap, setting her on her feet. Without a word, he bent down and gently scooped his youngest daughter into his arms and carried her to the room that she and her sister shared, Luhki at his heels and Lisa not far behind.

They tucked Mariah into her bed and then Jackson pulled the covers up on Luhki's bed and signaled for her to get in. With a huge bright grin, Luhki leapt into the bed and then blinked her big green eyes up innocently at Jackson. "Daddy?" she asked, "Is the boogie man gonna get me tonight?"

"Of course not, sweetie." Jackson said, folding the covers in tightly all around her.

"How do you know?"

"Because, sweetheart," Lisa said, a cheeky grin on her face, "Your daddy _is _the boogie man."

Luhki broke into an uncontrollable fit of giggles as Jackson narrowed his eyes at Lisa. The five year old sat up and wrapped her arms around her father's neck and kissed his cheek, then turned to her mother and held her arms out, clenching and unclenching her hands in a 'gimme' gesture. Lisa smiled warmly at her and leaned down to give her a hug and a goodnight kiss. Lisa switched on the nightlight and walked out of the bedroom before Jackson. Jackson shut the bedroom door behind him, then grabbed Lisa roughly around the waist and pinned her to the wall at the other side of the hallway, twisting his hand into her hair and pulling her head to the side giving him access to speak directly into her ear.

"So, I'm the boogie man, huh?" he breathed against her jaw.

He tugged Lisa's hair hard and it hurt, drawing a smile from her. Their relationship had never been a gentle one. Sure, there had been times when one of them had had a bad day or Jackson had come home with particularly bad new wounds and they would nurse each other and Jackson would sometimes rub Lisa's feet or shoulders. He gave one hell of a massage. They were loving and affectionate with each other, but when it came right down to it, it was the thrill of the chase, the pain, and the exhilaration of domination that excited them the most.

"You're my boogie man." Lisa said turning her face to kiss his mouth. A low animalistic growl rolled from deep in Jackson's throat and he pressed the length of his body against her. Lisa's hand went to Jackson's neck and she pushed him away. "You know we have company coming for dinner."

Jackson groaned and backed away from her. "Cynthia?"

"Yes, Cynthia." Lisa said, narrowing her eyes, "What's wrong with Cynthia?"

"I don't like that husband of hers."

"Oh, come on, Jackson. We've know Rick since before our wedding."

"Yeah, and I still don't like the guy. What's that tell you?" Jackson said walking into the kitchen.

"That you're not a people person." She countered following him.

Jackson spun around and kissed her, "You knew that when you married me."

Lisa smiled as she watched him start setting out the wine glasses for the evening. It was true. She had always known that Jackson was the exact opposite of a people person. When he had proposed to her, and that had been interesting in and of itself, she had wanted to know who it was that she was marrying...but it was an uphill battle to say the least to get any personal information out of Jackson Rippner. Getting him to talk about himself was like pulling teeth. She still didn't know everything about his past. What she did know was that his mother had died when he was two, his father had ditched him in the same year, and after his third foster family gave him up, he had spent the remainder of his childhood in an orphange. People apparently get a little freaked out by a five year old who knows that he's smarter than the adults around him and goes out of his way to show it off. He got a full scholarship to Brown University, where he graduated with honors. He was recruited his junior year, he would never say by whom, and was told that he fit a certain psychological profile. That was all that he had told her about his past.

"Yeah," Lisa said, walking up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her cheek between his shoulder blades, "I knew that."

Jackson rubbed his hand over her forearm and leaned his head back, letting his eyes flutter closed. He knew that sometimes Lisa needed more than he could give to her, but he gave her all that he had to give and she reassured him every time she smiled at him that she knew that. It had taken him a long time to get used to having her touch him so casually. There had been times when they had first gotten married that she would do nothing more than put her hand on his arm and on relfex he immediately had her by the throat. Lisa wasn't some simpering abused wife though, she would kick him, punch him, whatever she had to do until he would let her go. He never knew what to say after something like that, so he would just go into the bedroom to be by himself. Lisa would usually give him about fifteen minutes or so to calm himself down before she would slip into the room with him. Jackson would then cling to her, bury his face in her hair, and forget himself, taking comfort in her mere presence. It had been hard, but over the years he had learned not to jump whenever Lisa touched him and even, ever so slowly, he began to be affectionate with her as well.

They stood in that position for a long moment, until they were interrupted by the doorbell ringing. Lisa kissed Jackson on the back and went to answer the door. Cynthia and Rick came in, both smiling brightly. Rick Monogan was a tall handsome man with sandy blonde hair and hazel eyes. He was an advertising agent who had met Cynthia at the bar in the Lux while he had been schmoozing up to potential clients. They were absolutely perfect for each other. Rick shared Cynthia's sunny disposition. Jackson couldn't stand Rick. He liked Cynthia okay, after all she was Lisa's dearest friend but there was something off about Rick. He couldn't place it, but something was definitely wrong. Lisa felt that if he had earned Cynthia's mark of approval then there couldn't be anything wrong with him. After all, they had dated for nearly three years before she had agreed to marry him. Cynthia was the kind of girl who needed to be sure before she made a commitment like that.

They entered the house each bearing a present. Cynthia held in her hands a large bottle of merlot and Rick carried a huge yellow gift bag. His eyes scanned the room before settling on Lisa. "Where are the little ones?" he asked.

"Oh, they..." Lisa began.

"It's past their bedtime, Rick." Jackson cut her off from the kitchen doorway. He was smiling, but his eyes were narrowed in a way that Lisa knew all too well.

Lisa reached over and took the bottle of wine from Cynthia before looping her own arm through her friend's and leading her towards the dining room, flashing Jackson a warning look as she passed him. "Let's eat."

Jackson came into the dining room only to have Lisa shove the merlot bottle into his hands for him to open, giving him an excuse to separate himself from the company even if only for a moment.

"So, how was New York?" Lisa asked as they all sat down.

Cynthia was still officially on vacation, though she and Rick had returned home from New York City the night before. Cynthia had been looking forward to the trip for ages and had called Lisa as soon as they had landed to tell her how brilliant everything really was.

"It was amazing. We saw three Broadway plays, had ice cream at Serendipity, and I found you the perfect present from SAKS...which I forgot back at the house. Remind me to bring it to you next time we talk." Cynthia gushed. Lisa was willing to bet that she didn't take one breath during that entire statement.

"Sounds like you had fun." Jackson said, trying to imitate what he thought was normal conversation.

"Oh, we had a wonderful time." Cynthia stated.

Throughout the rest of the meal, Lisa and Cynthia chattered away happily about work, particularly rude hotel guests, the latest chick flick that either of them had had the chance to see, and the kids. Rick and Cynthia both absolutely adored Lisa and Jackson's kids. For the entire three years of their marriage they had been trying to have kids, but had been unable to get pregnant. Lisa had told Cynthia that she was trying too hard. As a result, Luhki, Mariah, and Jack Jr. had become the sort of apples of their eyes and they cared for the three of them as if they were their own.

Lisa kept checking on Jackson over the course of the night. He sat at the end of the table with Lisa sitting to his immediate right. She smiled to herself as she watched the way he tried his best to appear to be at ease, but she could tell how uncomfortable he really was. Now, one thing about Jackson, he took care of himself. He was a firm believer in staying healthy. He didn't smoke, except for the occasional cigar with her father, he had never taken any sort of drugs in his life, and he was far from a heavy drinker. Just a scotch or two in the evening was his limit. With that bit of knowledge in her head, Lisa sat there and watched him down three glasses of merlot before they were finished with the first course, and he looked about five seconds from hitting the liquor cabinet.

"So, Jack?" Rick said suddenly, not noticing the way that Lisa's gaze snapped away from Cynthia or the way that Jackson's nostrils flared with rage at the abbreviation. "How are things down at the law office?"

"Vexing." Jackson snapped and Lisa had the feeling that he wasn't referring to his work. She took a long sip of her wine.

"Oh, yeah?" Rick went on, oblivious. "You have any big cases?"

"Of course." Jackson said, "But I really can't talk about them."

"Right, right. Lawyer/client privilage and all that." Rick said.

"Something like that."

"I get it."

"You know, here recently, I've really been thinking I should do a little work for myself." Jackson said, his eyes lighting up as he stared at Rick, his mind going through the hundreds and hundreds of ways that he had been trained to kill a human being.

The words left his mouth just as Lisa took another swig of her wine and it took an enormous amount of effort to get that wine to go down her throat. She looked at Jackson wide eyed, but he simply shrugged and cut himself another bite of salmon. Rick however, was perplexed.

"How do you mean?" he asked.

Jackson merely smirked at him as Lisa coughed and laughed all at once, covering her mouth with her hand. Once she regained her selfcontrol, she placed her hand over her husband's and stroked it affectionately.

"How cute are they?" Cynthia cooed, "Wow, Lisa, you have the perfect family."

Lisa laughed deep and hearily but Cynthia just blinked at her. "Oh, you're serious." Lisa said, straighening her face at once. Jackson chuckled into his napkin at the look on his wife's face.

Luhki's sudden scream pierced the air and Jackson dropped his napkin on the table, at once on his guard, and moved to stand up.

"Oh, here let me." Rick said, also rising.

"Thanks, Rick." Jackson sneered, "But I think I can handle it."

Jackson disappeared down the hall to the girls' room, leaving Lisa alone with Cynthia and Rick.

"Just thought I could help." Rick sulked, sinking back into his chair.

"Oh, it's not you." Lisa lied, "It's just that with all the traveling he does, when he's home, he gets kind of possessive of the kids."

"Well, that's understandable." Cynthia said, trying desperately to break the tension that had suddenly thickened in the room.

Jackson raced into the girls' bedroom and Luhki flew from her bed into his arms, fat tears rolling down her round little face. She clung to her father's neck and sobbed into his shoulder.

"What's wrong?" Jackson whispered into his baby's hair.

"The...the...the man...he..." Luhki tried to say, but her tiny voice came out strangled and choked.

"Shh..." Jackson purred, kissing the top of her head, "it's okay, pumpkin. It was only a dream."

Jackson was still comforting Luhki from her nightmare when Lisa showed their guests to the door. She hugged Cynthia, watched them load into their car and back all the way out of the driveway before she retreated into the house, locking the door behind her. Jackson chose that moment to reemerge from Mariah and Luhki's room.

"Finally got her back to sleep." He said.

"How convenient." Lisa retorted, a knowing smile playing on her lips.

"Hey, I was just tending to my little girl." Jackson said.

"Until Cynthia left." Lisa said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"No. Not Cynthia."

"Rick is not a bad guy!"

"There is something off about him. I have instincts about this kind of thing. Trust me, Leese, he's not right."

"You're paranoid."

Maybe she was right. Maybe he was paranoid. But Rick just seemed a little too sunny; seemed to try a little too hard. Then again, maybe that's just how people who weren't hired killers behaved. He pushed past the thought and decided to change the subject.

"Have I ever told you how cute you are when you're upset?"

"No." Lisa said with an exasperated sigh, "but you push my buttons so much, I always just assumed."

Jackson jutted out his bottom lip, mimicking Jack Jr. He stepped forward and laced his hands around her waist and pulled her tight against him. "Bed." He said.

Lisa grinned and gave him a light peck on the lips. That was all it took. He swept her up off of her feet and carried her up the stairs to their loft bedroom. Once they were under the covers together, all the misgivings and bad days and violent jobs were forgotten and the only thing that existed in their worlds were each other.

**Author's Note: **So, that's the first chapter. I know it's slow, but as I said, just bare with me for a little while. Let me know what you think!


	3. Chapter Two: Trainee

**Author's Note: **Thank you all again for the reviews. This is a challenge. I think sequels are always harder to pull off than originals, so if I start to slip, y'all be sure to let me know, kay? Anyways, on to the next chapter…

**Chapter Two: Trainee**

Lisa woke up Monday morning to an orange lying on the pillow next to her. She smiled to herself before she stretched and crawled out of bed to get ready for work. Jackson was always up and out of the house a good hour before she was even aware of the world. After she had groomed herself and fixed her hair into a French twist, she dressed in a black dress suit with a vibrant silk blue shirt underneath and went to get her kids up and ready. Luhki refused to wear the light pink dress Lisa tried to dress her in and wound up in a dark green tee shirt and jeans, but Mariah was more than happy to run around in a ruffled floral dress like she was a princess. The only she didn't like were shoes. Mariah hated to wear shoes and took off running whenever she caught sight of a pair of them. It didn't really matter what she put Jack Jr. in, by the time Maggie picked him up from daycare the ensemble would be forever changed. She got them loaded into the SUV and headed for their daycare center, she and Luhki singing along to a Disney CD and Jack Jr. and Mariah in their car seats in the back dancing and squealing along with them.

Daycare was on her way to work, so she dropped the kids off and from there it was a straight shot to the hotel. Cynthia had been on vacation for the past three days and would be for the next week, so Lisa's higher ups had sent her some fresh blood to train. So, she had this new assistant manager following her around, learning the ropes. A young hot shot named Davey Crook. Yes, Davey. Not David, not Dave, not anything more grown up. Just Davey. She clacked into work with an extra bounce in her already confident stride. She was wearing the power Pradas today. While she was training Davey, she didn't want there to be any misunderstandings as to who held the authority at the Lux Atlantic. Young men tended to be ambitious and that was all well and good, but she didn't want him setting his sights on her job just yet.

Lydia, a petite brunette who was trying to put herself through college was working the front desk. She had been working full time since school had let out for summer break a month ago, but all together she had been there for about five months. She was smart and a hard worker and Lisa liked her. She offered the young girl a friendly smile as she came up to stand next to her.

"Is Mr. Crook in, yet?" Lisa asked the girl.

Lydia looked at her, her brown eyes wide and round. "Yes. Lisa, you didn't tell me how gorgeous he was."

Lisa laughed, "Truthfully, Lydia, I didn't know he was."

"Are you kidding?"

"He's your boss, Lydia."

"Does that mean I can't admire him?"

Lisa looked at her knowingly, "It means don't get any ideas."

Lydia grinned as she double checked a reservation she had just made over the phone, "Not ideas. Fantasies."

Lisa chuckled at the younger woman. She remembered when she used to think that way. She had noticed that Davey was attractive. He was very attractive. He had come to the job from working as head concierge at the Righa Royal in New York City. After working there for two and a half years in that position, he had been passed over for promotion three times with the higher ups hiring from outside the company. He decided to leave and take a job where he stood some chance at advancement. The assistant manager wasn't a big step up, but it was step up that held the opportunity for further steps.

"So, be honest," Lydia said, "what do you really think of him?"

"Think of who?" A smooth, light but undeniably masculine voice said.

Lisa looked over to see Davey stepping up beside her. He was young and charming with high cheek bones, full pouty lips, and dark blue eyes framed with long black lashes. He had black hair gelled up in messy spikes akin to that of a punk rocker which was a drastic contrast to the well tailored charcoal business suit he wore. He smiled at the two women, and Lisa couldn't help but think about how young he looked when he smiled. He looked boyish and mischievous.

"Come on, Davey. We have a lot to do today." Lisa said, picking up her notepad and stepping out from behind the desk.

Davey cocked an eyebrow at Lydia and then followed. Lisa led the way to the employee elevator and swiped her card. She had to show him the surveillance room and get him used to the controls. Once they were in the elevator, Davey leaned back against the wall and shoved his hands into his pants pockets. He looked at her with the corners of his mouth turned upward in a grin.

"I never had a boss as pretty as you at the Rihga." He said, looking down as a school boy who had just confessed a crush would. Lisa even thought that she saw a slight blush on his cheeks.

"Yeah, well," Lisa said, "don't let my husband hear you say something like that. He'll kill you."

Davey laughed, looking back up at her his dark eyes sparkling. Lisa let him believe that she was kidding. Truth was, Jackson was jealous, protective, possessive, and any number of other synonyms that you care to take the time to think of. If he thought another man's gaze lingered a little too long on Lisa he would start to head toward them. Lisa was always prepared though, catching his arm and dragging him along to make sure that no fatalities happened because some pervert thought that she had nice legs. If Jackson saw the way that Davey was looking at her now, there was no real telling what he might do to the boy.

"What does your husband do?" he asked.

"Lawyer." Lisa said without the slightest hesitation. It was their standard answer whenever anyone asked about Jackson's profession.

"That must keep him away from home a lot. Long hours and such." Davey continued, his gaze never meeting hers. It was as though he desperately wanted to imply something, but he was too shy to do so. She knew exactly what he wanted to imply and she would have none of it.

"Yes." She said, "But he more than makes up for it when he's home."

Davey's cheeks flushed and he looked down at his feet. Lisa smiled. He was so like a little boy, she had the sudden urge to hug him to her. She would be lying if she said that she didn't like the way he looked at her. It made her feel good that a younger man still found her attractive. After all, she had had three children and she certainly wasn't as young as she used to be. Davey looked up at her with a shy smile.

"Well, forgive me for saying it but, who wouldn't?" he said, his voice very soft as though he hadn't decided whether or not he wanted her to hear him say it or not.

The elevator suddenly felt very small. It was taking too long and he was standing too close. She could feel the heat radiating from his gaze, boyish and innocent or not, there was something in the way he was staring at her, a way that she was reacting to it that felt wicked. The doors opened with a buzz and Lisa could not have gotten out of there faster if she had tried. Davey was instantly following at her heels like a puppy trotting clumsily after its master.

She led him down the hallway to the metal door of the security room, power heels clacking the whole way. She swiped her keycard and the door opened for them to be greeted by the jolly round face of Ed, the head of hotel security.

"Well, hello there sunshine!" Ed said to Lisa. She was his idea of the perfect boss rolled into a daughter esq. figure. He looked at her with an expression of fatherly care on his Carl Winslow esq. face. His stare hit Davey and his eyes narrowed considerably in their scrutiny of the boy. His gaze traveled the length of the young man before settling back on his face. "This the new hot shot?" he asked Lisa.

Lisa smiled, "Davey Crook, meet Ed Canter. Ed, this is Davey Crook."

"Davey, huh?" Ed huffed.

Davey, looking just as innocent and amiable as ever, offered the robust security guard his hand, "It's a pleasure."

Ed eyed Davey's hand for a long moment before accepting it with a big friendly smile. "How ya doin', boy?"

Lisa stared at the two men shaking hands for a moment before letting her eyes roam the rest of the room. She couldn't help but let her memory travel back to the time that she had been in there with Jackson. It felt like so long ago, but it still made her tingle inside. The heat. The rage. The danger. The complete and utter passion that had all but consumed them. Her gaze landed on Davey and found that his almost navy blue eyes were staring right back into hers and a sudden burning sensation filled the pit of her stomach. She felt Goosebumps form over the surface of her skin. She needed to get her mind on something else. It wasn't Davey, she told herself, but the memory of herself and Jackson that was doing it to her. Still, she needed to get her mind into safer territory.

"Today, Davey gets his lesson in the art of surveillance." Lisa chimed, taking the comfortable rolling chair beside Ed and crossing her legs. She smiled at Davey, who tried desperately to hide the fact that he was blushing.

"Well, don't just stand there like a toad, son, take a seat." Ed blasted.

Davey snapped to attention as if he were in the military and hustled to set up one of the numerous folding chairs that were lined up along the far wall. He set it up as close to Lisa as he could without being obvious, even though by then it was too late for any form of subtlety.

"Ed?" Lisa said, "Will you explain all this to him or would you rather…"

"Sure thing, Sunshine." Ed said happily, "All right, sonny, these monitors cover pretty much ever'thing in this hotel." He punched buttons as he went along, each screen flickering into a different image as he went, "We got hallways, elevators, lobby, restaurants, basically ever'thing but the toilets."

"Or suites." Lisa chirped without looking up from her notes.

"That's right, darlin'." Ed said, his face beaming with a kind of paternal pride, "In accordance with the law we are not permitted to have surveillance cameras in the actual rooms themselves. Know why that is, sport?"

"Uh, privacy." Davey said. It came out more as a question than an answer, but Ed gave him the credit anyway.

"That's right."

Lisa chuckled from her chair and continued to scribble on her notepad. Poor kid. He was greener than the grass and Ed could see right through him. Head concierge was a lot different from being a manager, even just an assistant one. Little Davey had a lot to learn. It was her job to show him the basics, but most of what he was going to have to deal was something that could only be taught through experience. It would take him a while to get into the swing of things. She thought about Cynthia when she had first gotten promoted and figured that she and Davey were going to be stuck working together for a while. That thought was scary. She needed to get some things in check, or she was going to wind up unintentionally getting the boy killed. Or he was going to wind up getting himself killed. Either way was a lose/lose.

She looked up from her notepad and looked at her trainee. His brow was furrowed and some of his spiked black locks had fallen into his eyes and his face was adorably scrunched up in concentration as he listened to what Ed was saying. Lisa felt herself smile before quickly shaking it away and averting her eyes back down to her paper. She was in trouble.

They spent a half an hour more in the surveillance room with Ed explaining practically every little detail about the room to young Davey. But it seemed all too soon that the two of them were once again confined to the tiny employee elevator. Lisa decided that she needed to have her head examined, or reexamined as she had gone to a therapist for the entire month after she had agreed to marry Jackson, when she caught herself admiring the way Davey's suit fit him.

"So, is he good to you, then?" Davey said, breaking Lisa from her thoughts.

"What?"

"Your husband." Davey said, a bashful grin on his face, "Is he good to you, you know? Does he treat you well?"

"Oh." Lisa said, trying to regain her composure, "Yes. Very."

Davey nodded and looked away to hide the disappointment that was apparent on his face. He rubbed a hand over his forehead and cursed himself under his breath. How naïve was he? Did he think that she was just going to have a husband who was shit and jump into bed with him? When he had first arrived at the Lux Atlantic, he hadn't really known what to expect. In his experience, most hotel managers were old gray haired crows with absolutely no sense of humor and then Lisa had appeared. She had smiled and laughed and joked around with him, all the while letting him know that she was in charge and in control and that that should never be called into question. He didn't think he had ever met anyone quite like her.

The ringing of her cell phone brought Davey out of his thoughts and back to the present as she flipped it open and held it to her ear, talking quietly into it. He watched her speaking into the phone for a moment, then with a roll of her eyes she flipped it closed once again.

"That was Lydia." She said, "Apparently the Beckersteins are at it again." She leaned forward and punched the button for the tenth floor. "Ready to have some real fun?"

They hit the tenth floor and Lisa cantered determinedly down the hall until they came to a room with the sounds of screaming and glass breaking and any number of objects crashing against the walls coming through the door. The sound of glass shattering against the door rang out and Lisa winced.

"There went the crystal flower vase I sent up yesterday." She said, before knocking tentatively against the door with her knuckles.

She looked at Davey and smiled reassuringly. His eyes grew wider with every little noise that came from within the room. Lisa knocked again only to have the door fly open before her hand hit it a third time to reveal George Beckerstein, a burly man with a stout build clad in a wife beater with a thatch of thick black curly hair coming over the collar. He had a shaved head, a full beard and mustache, and an Army tattoo on his bulky arm. He also had a rapidly forming black eye from the sudden and unexpected impact he had had with the corner of an alarm clock.

"Hello, Lisa." He said.

Lisa held back her shock at the sight of his swollen eye and smiled warmly, "What'd you do now, George?" She joked.

"Apparently I thought that the maid who brought our breakfast was cute." George said.

"Bastard!" Libby Beckerstein screamed as she hurled a plate with half eaten eggs benedict into the wall by George's head.

"Hey, Libby?" Lisa called.

"Lisa?" came the response.

"Yeah, it's me." Lisa said as the small heart shaped face of Libby Beckerstein appeared from around the corner. She was small woman with straight shiny jet black hair and dark brown almost black eyes. She wore a dark blue button up dress with tiny pink flowers all over it to cover her clean pale skin. She came out from behind the corner and Lisa was able to get a better look at her. Her face was flushed and there were tears running down her cheeks. "What's goin' on, Libby?"

"This wanker was flirting with that stupid little slag that brought up our toast!" Libby screamed in her thick English accent, jumping up to smack her husband, who stood a good foot and half taller than her, on the head.

George caught her arms to keep her from jumping up and hitting him again. "You've lost your mind, woman!"

"Have I now?" Libby screamed, trying to twist away from his grip, "You pisser! Why don't you just shag her and get it over with! While you're at it, there's an entire hotel to cover! Just shag the bloody lot of them!"

"Okay!" Lisa chimed, "Libby, darling, do you really think that George thought that your server was cute?"

"He bloody well stared at her for long enough!"

"Pardon me for interrupting, but I just don't see how that's possible, Mrs. Beckerstein." Davey spoke for the first time since they had gotten to the door.

Libby turned her wide eyes to the handsome young man at her door and her fierce expression softened almost instantly. George noticed, "Sorry, who're you?"

"Sorry, sir." Davey said, "I'm Davey Crook. I'm a new assistant manager."

"Are you then?" Libby said, her tone dreamy.

"Yes, ma'am." Davey said, charisma practically dripping from his pores. "And if you don't mind me saying so, I don't think your husband would ever look at another woman when he has you around."

"Oh, I don't know." Libby sighed, "He is a big daft cow."

Davey and she shared a private little laugh at the statement and Lisa watched as George began growing a bit more perturbed with every passing second. Then, Davey leaned forward and whispered into Libby's ear, drawing a light girly giggle from her. She nodded and giggled again, then disappeared back into the room, giving her husband a loving pat on the arm as she passed. George looked about ready to kill Davey, so Lisa took an immediate step in front of him.

"Well, I suppose we'll leave you two alone, now. George, try and keep it down next time. I like you guys, but the other guests complain." She said.

"Yeah. Sorry, Lisa." George said, shutting the door.

Lisa turned to Davey. "What did you say to her."

"I just told her how lovely she was and that if she was really worried about her husband, I would personally see to it that no more women brought them their room service." Davey said.

"That's all?" Lisa asked skeptically.

"I may have suggested that if she were still worried after that to call me." He said with a grin akin to that of a Cheshire cat.

The rest of the day went by at a snail's pace really. Lisa led Davey around and he got to observe all the problems that can and will happen in a large hotel. Everything from a toilet overflowing to an irate drunken sixteen year old who had forgotten what room she was staying in, not to mention a most unfortunate incident involving a hair dryer, electric toothbrush, and three boxes of red hair dye. That one had been interesting.

At the end of the night, when Lisa was certain she had had just about as much as she could stand, Davey came sauntering up to beside where she stood at the counter, his eyes wide and hopeful like a puppy dog as he looked at her.

"Getting off?" he asked.

"Yes, thank God." Lisa said smiling at him.

Davey hesitated before asking his next question. "Come have a drink with me."

Lisa shook her head. "No."

"Please?" Davey went on, "Come on. One drink, I'm begging you here. Be impulsive."

Lisa looked at him. Be impulsive. The word was dangerous and tempting. Jackson had to have everything planned down to the minute. He used to tell Lisa when they had first gotten married that one of the things he loved so much about her was that she was always surprising him, but now nothing in her life felt like a surprise. And then there was Davey who, as much as she hated to admit it, felt like a breath of fresh air. Her eyes studied his hopeful face and she could feel herself about ready to give in to him. Maybe she would have…if her cell phone hadn't have rang at that exact moment.

Davey looked at Lisa as she read the caller id on her phone and from the way her eyes lit up, he knew that it was her husband.

Lisa flipped open her phone, "If you're calling to ask me to change a room number, I'm hanging up."

She heard Jackson's warm, familiar chuckle on the other end of the line. "_Missed you today, too, Leese_."

"Uh-huh." Lisa said, trying to sound skeptical, but failing miserably.

"_I was just calling to see if you were gonna be working late tonight_."

Her eyes locked with Davey's, "No. Actually I'm leaving right now."

Davey nodded at her and smiled one last time before walking away, his hands shoved down in his pockets, his head forward staring at his feet. Lisa felt sick. She had just kicked a puppy.

"_Well, I probably won't be for about another three hours. Just wanted to let you know not to worry. I just got a new job_."

"I don't wanna know."

Jackson chuckled again. "_Not even a little?_"

"Not even a fraction." Lisa answered, smiling, "See you at home."

"_Bye._" Jackson said and the line went silent.

Lisa flipped her phone closed and stared off in the direction that Davey had gone. He was a sweet kid and he didn't need to let himself get a crush on her. She didn't want him to get hurt. With a shake of her head, she went to the back and gathered her things before making her way out to her car to go home.

She was ready to collapse when she walked through the door.

"Maggie? I'm sorry I'm late, sweetie." Lisa said as Maggie came from stirring ice tea in the kitchen.

"It's all right." Maggie said.

"Do you need a ride home?"

"No. I'm goo…" the girl began, the gasped and took three steps back, her hand flying up to cover her mouth.

Lisa looked in the direction of the living room where the babysitter was looking. Jack Jr. was safely in his playpen, but Mariah was using the back of the couch as a balance beam. However, that's not what caught Lisa or Maggie's attention. It was Luhki. Or more accurately it was the black semi-automatic 9 mm handgun in the five year old's grasp.

**Author's Note: **Well, what do you think?


	4. Chapter Three: Something's Wrong

**Author's Note: **Thanks for the reviews! I don't really have any other comments at this point and time…just thanks! On to the chapter…

**Chapter Three: Something's Wrong**

Jackson could sense that something was off as soon as he pulled into the driveway. He had always prided himself on, well, everything pretty much, but especially on his impeccable instincts. There was something wrong. He stepped out of his Jaguar and let his eyes run a quick scan of his front yard. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but something definitely was. He decided to go in through the side door at the garage as opposed to the front door as he usually did. He saw that Lisa's car was tucked safely away in the garage as it usually was. He passed by it, running his hand along the bottom to feel for any loose or out of place wires at the same time checking the backseat for anything that didn't belong. When he didn't find anything, he stuck his key in the door lock with a shake of his head. Maybe he really was paranoid.

As soon as he walked through the door, reflexes kicked in and he hit the ground at the same time a bullet hurtled into the doorframe, barely missing his head. He drew the K-bar from its sheath attached to his ankle and leapt to his feet, knees bent in crouched ready position as his eyes landed on his would be attacker. It was Lisa. She was perched on the dining room table, her legs tucked under herself, pistol in hand. There was still smoke billowing from the barrel and it was aimed right between his eyes.

"Mommy!" came the terrified shriek of one of their daughters.

"Go back to bed, baby!" Lisa called without breaking eye contact with Jackson. "Mommy's just having a little talk with daddy."

Jackson straightened his stance, his pretty eyes narrowing into dangerous looking slits as he studied his wife. His grip tightened on his knife and he moved to take a step toward her with every intention of inserting the blade into some part of that pretty flesh of hers. He only got one foot forward when Lisa pulled back the hammer on the gun and he halted immediately. It was an unnecessary movement seeing that the gun was a semi automatic and didn't require cocking, she was just letting him know that if he came any closer, she would shoot him. He knew that she had missed him on purpose. His wife was a damn fine shot. Had she wanted to, she could have splattered his brains all over the eggshell colored wall behind him. She had just been giving him a friendly warning shot. Jackson popped his neck and tried to relax his shoulders, which was no easy feat considering the adrenaline that was rushing through his body at the moment. He was ready for action.

"What's up, Leese?" he said, flashing her the cocky little smirk that he was so famous for.

One corner of Lisa's mouth tipped upward in a smile. She knew him too well. He was trying his best to look relaxed and as though he weren't examining her from every angle, looking for a weak point from which he could attack…but his knuckles were white he was gripping the handle of his knife so hard. He was pissed. The tension that was mounting in the room was so thick, Lisa wasn't sure how much longer she was going to be able to breathe. If Jackson got hold of her, she knew that he wouldn't play around. He would be in it to do some serious physical damage. She did not lower the gun or break eye contact. She wasn't going to let him get out of her line of sight.

"Do you see the gun I'm holding?" she asked.

"Clearly." Jackson said, taking a step to the side.

Lisa moved with him, having positioned her legs so that she could easily pivot. She had changed from her work clothes into a pair of sweats and a tank top that gave her more freedom for movement. Again, she knew her husband well enough to know that he would begin to circle her like a shark. She needed to be able to maneuver if he came at her. All he needed to do was throw her off balance somehow and he had her. She wasn't going to let that happen. "I came home earlier and found it in the hands of our _five year old daughter_!"

It suddenly hit Jackson what it was that Lisa thought had happened and he looked more closely at the gun in her hand. It was black, not silver. He was suddenly once again down in a crouch, taking in every corner of what he could see of the house. "That's not you gun, is it?"

"Does it look like my gun? Don't be an ass, Jackson, you know it's not my gun."

"Leese, you know me. I don't own a gun."

His words slammed into Lisa like a slap in the face and she sprang at once from the table. Holding the gun out in front of her, she maneuvered herself to press her back against Jackson's.

"Jackson?" she said.

"Yes, babe." He replied, trying to peer around the corner into the kitchen.

"Someone was in our house."

There was a momentary pause as they both inspected the rooms of the house that were in their line of vision. Lisa's heart was pounding so hard, she was certain Jackson could hear it.

Then, Jackson spoke up. "Get the kids."

Lisa snapped into action, but as she moved to pass Jackson, he caught her by the elbow and forced her to face him. He pointed the tip of his dagger in the direction of the bullet hole in the wall, his clear blue eyes boring down into Lisa's. "We're gonna talk about that later."

"Fine." Lisa said through a clamped jaw as she tried to wrench her arm free from his vice like grip. "You're hurting me."

Jackson held tight for another second, then let her go with a slight shove. Lisa watched him run silently up the stairs to their bedroom to gather some things for the two of them before she made her way to Luhki and Mariah's room first, tucking the gun into the back of her waistband as she went. Both girls were wide awake and sitting up in Luhki's bed. The gunshot had startled them and Lisa regretted it. She would never be able to explain to them why she had felt the need to shoot at their father. They gaped at her as she walked in.

"Mommy?" Luhki asked, her voice small and frail sounding. In a heartbeat, Lisa was on her knees beside the bed with her arms wrapped around her two daughters. They were so small and defenseless and knew nothing about the dangers of the world that they had unwittingly been born into. Lisa fought back the tears that were welling up against the backs of her eyes, gave the girls a final squeeze and jumped to her feet.

"All right. Mommy needs you two to be big girls now, okay?" Lisa said, her voice trembling. Both round faces nodded. "Okay. Get up. Luhki, help Mariah put her shoes on while I pack a bag for you."

The two girls did as they were told; Mariah didn't even put up her usual struggle against the shoes. Once Lisa had thrown some of their clothes into an overnight bag, they followed her into Jack Jr.'s nursery and waited patiently by the door while Lisa packed a bag for him as well. Jackson suddenly appeared in the doorway with a duffle slung over his shoulder. Luhki looked up at him for reassurance and comfort, but Jackson was in survival mode and barely acknowledged her existence other than to count her present in his own mind. He moved over to Jack Jr.'s bed and lifted him from the mattress without waking him, then gestured to Lisa with a jerk of his head for her to go ahead of him. Lisa scooped Mariah into her arms and grabbed Luhki by the hand and they all began to make their way down the hall toward the garage.

"What's going on, daddy?" Luhki asked, looking over her shoulder at her father.

Jackson shushed her with his lips and whispered, "I'll tell you when you're older. Just be a good girl and stay with mommy."

Luhki's little mouth tightened into a white line as though she knew that he was holding out on her. Jackson smiled at how much she resembled himself at that moment. She was a bright kid. She really was the best bits of himself and Lisa mixed together. He had never thought that he would have the feelings that he had for his family. Hell, he had never thought that he would have a family. But, now that he had one, he would be damned before he let some dissatisfied client come in and hurt one hair on any of their heads. It was the hardest job he had ever had…being a dad.

Lisa grabbed her keys off the end table by the door that led to the garage and moved to open it when Jackson stepped in front of her to go out it first. If there was someone waiting for them out there, he wanted to be the first one that they saw. He needed to be in front of Lisa. He needed to shield her. He used his foot to nudge the door open and peeked his head out. There was no one there. The garage was completely void of life and sound and the heaviness of the silence was eerie. He stepped through the door to better gauge the room, tightening his grasp on his son as he did so. With another jerk of his head, he gestured for Lisa to come on out and the two of them set about getting Mariah and the still sleeping Jack Jr. into their car seats. Luhki crawled into her seat willingly and buckled herself in. Lisa handed Jackson her keys and climbed into the passenger seat, letting her face fall into her hands. She had never asked for this life. She didn't want her children to go through this. But what was the alternative? To give up the only man who had ever challenged her? The only man who had ever really protected her? The only man she had ever loved? No. No, she would fight for him until her dying day. That is, if he didn't kill her first for shooting a gun at his head.

She discreetly shoved the offending weapon into the glove compartment as Jackson peeled out of the driveway. It had just started to rain and the slick pavement caused the tires to momentarily lose traction and the SUV fishtailed as soon as it was out of the driveway. It took Jackson less that one second to get the car back under his control and straight on the road again. He spotted Lisa glaring at him from the corner of his eye but didn't acknowledge it. Lisa knew that he was purposely ignoring her, but she was too concerned with how reckless he was driving to give a damn about the consequences of speaking up about it to him.

"Slow down!" she hissed, turning in her seat to check on the kids, "Is this speed really necessary?"

Jackson didn't answer her. Mariah and Luhki were both giggling from the way the centrifugal force from Jackson making a turn too fast was throwing them around in their seats and Jack Jr. was still snoozing away happily. It took a hurricane to wake that child up. When she turned back to chastise Jackson further, she found that he was checking on the kids via the rearview mirror and she decided not to lecture him on what he already seemed to be concerned about.

She chewed on her bottom lips for a moment before saying, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine." Jackson said shortly.

Lisa took a breath to steady herself, "I mean…about the gun."

Jackson looked at her for a brief second; so brief that Lisa could have very well imagined it. She didn't know how he was going to respond to her apology or if it had ever registered in his brain that she really was sorry for doing it. His mouth was drawn into a tight straight line, then he said, "You gotta do what you gotta do, right?"

That wasn't exactly the response that she had been wanting to hear.

"So, you gonna kill me later?" she asked, trying to make it come out as a joking question but her voice trembled from the very real fear that was churning about in the pit of her stomach.

It did not go unnoticed by Jackson. He looked over at his wife and saw the fear on her face. Too much had just come pouring into their lives all at once. She didn't need to be worrying about pissing him off right now. She had been protecting her children and that's all that there was to it. He put one hand on the back of her head and stroked her hair. "Nah," he said flashing her a smile, "I was thinking more along the lines of light torture."

Lisa let out a breath of relief and grabbed his hand, bringing his palm to her lips and kissing it. She didn't want to be afraid of Jackson tonight. She needed him right now. She needed him to make her feel safe; to make her feel like their children were safe. He could be mad at her later, but not tonight. "Where are we going?" she asked, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye.

"The Lux."

"No." Lisa said shaking her head, "It's too big. It doesn't feel safe. I mean, do you even know who's after us?"

It killed Jackson inside to have to tell her 'no' but he had to. He didn't know who it was. He didn't have a clue. He hadn't pissed anybody off lately; not that had the power to track him down. At least, he didn't think that he had. He dug his cell phone out of his pocket and handed it to Lisa. "Call Cynthia."

Lisa was practically dialing the number before he had even let go of the phone. She told Cynthia that they needed a place to stay and of course Cynthia told her to come over before Lisa even asked if they could. That was just the kind of friend that she was. Lisa hung up Jackson's phone and dropped it in the console before rubbing her hand against her forehead. Jackson reached over and squeezed her thigh. Mariah and Luhki giggled in the backseat, but they were both starting to look sleepy. Mariah's eyes were red and heavy lidded. Lisa stared at them in the mirror and was overwhelmed by the sudden feeling that all she wanted to do was get her babies somewhere where they could go safely to sleep. Her stomach twisted into knots when she thought about someone skulking through her house while her kids were there. If she ever found out who it was, she would sharpen Jackson's knife for him and even be there to hand it to him when he went to work on them. No one messed with her kids.

They pulled into Cynthia's driveway ten minutes later and got out of the SUV. Mariah had since fallen asleep, so Jackson got her out and Lisa lifted the comatose Jack Jr. from his seat, Luhki climbed out on her own after. Cynthia was standing at the door in her pajamas waiting for them as they crept silently up the walk. Once through the door, Jackson dropped all of their bags from his shoulder beside the large plant that stood at the side of the doorframe and focused all of his energy on the sleeping child in his arms. They put Jack Jr. in the crib that Cynthia had had when she was a baby, even though he was far too big for it. The sides would keep him from rolling out in the middle of the night and that was the important part. They tucked Mariah and Luhki into the spare bedroom where they usually stayed when they spent the night with Cynthia and Rick.

Lisa sat at their dining room table with her forehead braced on one hand while Cynthia held the other comfortingly. Rick stood in the kitchen fixing them all a pot of coffee. "You're lookin' rough, Lisa." He said.

"You ever just have one of those days?" Lisa said, trying her best to work up a smile. Jackson was outside, taking a walk. He had told Cynthia that he just needed a breath of fresh air and Lisa did not tell her the truth. She knew that he was currently walking around the exterior of the house, checking the perimeter, making mental notes of escape routes and possible obstacles. Cynthia knew who Jackson was and what Lisa and he had been through. She didn't approve of their relationship at first, but once she had seen how truly devoted to each other they were, she had come to understand them…and even like Jackson.

"What's up, Leese? I know you hate questions, but…I'm worried about you." Cynthia said, her eyes big and wide with concern.

"It's nothing." Lisa lied, "It'll all blow over. Thanks, though. I mean, you know, for letting us crash here for the night…for caring….for everything basically."

"Hey, it's not even a question. If you ever need somewhere, I'm here."

"I know." Lisa said. She sniffled and held back a tear before leaning over and wrapping her arms around Cynthia's neck. It was about then that Jackson came back in from his 'walk'. Lisa pulled away from Cynthia and looked at him. She didn't need to speak for him to know that she was asking if everything seemed all right.

He gave her a quick nod and then put a broad smile on his face. "I smell coffee." He said walking over and sitting down beside Lisa, kissing her bare shoulder as he did.

"Yeah," Rick said, carrying four cups and the fresh pot of coffee over to the table and setting them down. "Lisa was just about to tell us what was goin' on."

"Was she?" Jackson said, staring into Rick's eyes, seeing the look on Lisa's face in his peripheral vision. Lisa wasn't about to go blabbing that kind of thing for everyone to know. She especially wouldn't tell Cynthia because she didn't want to drag her friend into whatever it was that was going on. Jackson detested liars and he already didn't like Rick. He was not earning himself bonus points. All he was doing was making Jackson want to cut out his tongue. Cynthia spoke up before Jackson or Rick could get anything else out.

"It's okay." She said, "We don't need to know."

Yeah. Jackson liked Cynthia. She was smarted than a lot of people gave her credit for. She understood that Lisa needed her and that she couldn't necessarily tell her why and that was okay with her.

"Thanks, Cynthia." Jackson said, "Uh, if it's all right, I'd like to speak with my wife in private."

"Sure." Cynthia said, pushing herself up from the table and leading Rick from the room by the hand.

They weren't out of the room for more than a second and Lisa was out of her chair and collapsed into Jackson's arms. Jackson hugged her to him, ran his fingers through her hair, and cupped her face in his hands. He brushed some fresh tears from her cheeks with his thumbs and kissed the tip of her nose.

"Hey," He whispered, "it's okay. I'm gonna figure this out. You know I'm gonna take care of you, don't you?"

Jackson was dangerous. He was the most dangerous man she had ever met; deadly in more ways than one and completely unafraid to use his power. But with him, she had learned not to feel the danger but the warmth of his protection. It was a true contradiction, the way she felt about Jackson. Taking comfort in him was like feeling safety in a mine field…but she did.

"There's something I don't tell you enough," he said, breaking her from her thoughts, "I love you, Leese. You know that, right?"

Lisa nodded, but her chin was quivering and there were new tears forming in her eyes. "I'm uh…I'm just gonna go wash my face, kay?" she said, "Are you coming to bed tonight?"

Jackson chuckled and Lisa almost smiled at her own question. She knew what Jackson would be doing for the rest of the night. He would be sitting up with all the lights and tv and radio, basically everything, turned off and he would be listening. He would be waiting for the slightest noise; the slightest indication that something was amiss; that someone was out there and he would spring into action. It was the same way he worked which was the only was he knew how to protect his family.

Lisa hugged him again and gave him a kiss before walking out of the room and toward the guest bathroom. Jackson watched her walk away and nearly lost his breath. He didn't want her to have to go through all of this again. She was the mother of his children for the love of everything holy. She needed to be sitting at home reading Jack Jr. a bedtime story, not worrying about whether or not there some creep lurking outside of Jack Jr.'s bedroom door.

The sound of a creaking door rang through his ears as loud as if it had been a foghorn. Jackson was out of his chair and crouched against the wall in the blink of an eye. A small dark head appeared around the corner and turned toward him, blinking those big green eyes at him. "Daddy?"

"Hey, precious." Jackson said, straightening and scooping Luhki up into his arms.

"What were you doing?" she asked.

"Nothing." He replied, giving her a kiss on the forehead. He carried her into the living room and plopped down on the sofa, setting his daughter on his knee. "What are you still doing up?"

"I wanted to ask you a question." She said, sounding so much older than five.

"All right."

"When is it okay to tell a secret?"

"Well, I suppose that depends." Jackson answered.

"On what?"

"Well, who told you the secret? Was it me…or mommy?"

"No." Luhki said, shaking her head for emphasis.

"Was it one of your friends?"

Luhki thought about that for a minute, then, with big sad eyes, she shook her head again. "No."

"Is it hurting someone?" Jackson asked, his concern growing with every word that came from his daughter's mouth.

Luhki nodded her head, her eyes cast downward staring at her hands. "Daddy?" she said gently.

"Yeah, baby." Jackson said, putting his arms around her in an attempt to make her feel safer.

She looked up at him, her eyes so huge and green and shining with her innocence. "I think I need to tell you a secret."

**Author's Note: **Please let me know what you think…Please…!


	5. Chapter Four: Luhki's Secret

**Author's Note: **Sorry about the update delay. My internet has been on the fritz, so please be patient with me. Here's the nexy chapter. Be sure to let me know what you think. As always, thanks to everyone who had reviewed. And, to answer a question...

**DarkAngel121**: I thought about that when I was writing it and I guess I should have been a little more specific as to how he was walking out. The way I envisioned it in my head was to have him peeking around the corner and when he stepped through the door, his body would have been turned so that he was covering Jack Jr. I reread the chapter after reading your review and I see what you mean. I may end up going back and revising. Thank you for pointing it out to me.

Now, I'll stop babbling and let you read! Again, thanks!

**Chapter Four: Luhki's Secret**

Jackson could barely stomach what his daughter had just told him. He sat there, rubbing his hands over his face and fighting the urge to vomit. He never threw up, but it currently seemed a rather appealing idea. How was he going to tell Lisa? Would she believe him or would she think he made it up? He would just have to find a way to prove it to her. How was the real question? He thought about his little Luhki. About her big brilliant eyes, her gorgeous smile, her innocence. Why her?

Cynthia had dragged Lisa to the master bedroom so that she could give her present from New York to her. Jackson was taking advantage of the distraction to figure out exactly what he was going to do about the situation at hand. As if things weren't bad enough, now this bomb had to be dropped. But, he calmed and collected himself. He would diffuse this little problem the same way he did all the others. After all, he was the very best at what he did. He could handle this.

Luhki lay in the large bed located perfectly in the center of the guestroom of her auntie Cynthia's house. Mariah was sleeping soundly at her side, her breathing slow and steady. There was a small glowing slit at the side of the bedroom door where it was cracked, which gradually widened as light flooded into the room as the door slowly creaked open. The room was suddenly filled with eerie dancing shadows as the familiar silhouette entered. But their frightening ballet was cut short with the closing of the door. Luhki sat up in bed, being careful not to jostle Mariah. As her eyes began to adjust to the dark, she was able to focus on her visitor's face. She was not surprised to see him.

Rick slid over to the edge of the bed and kneeled down on one knee. "Hello sweetheart." He said, "Are you having trouble sleeping? Do you want uncle Rick to tell you a bedtime story?"

Luhki shook her head and her entire little body tensed as Rick put his hand on her leg. He squeezed her knee through the covers and reached his other hand up to tuck a dark strand of her hair behind her ear.

"Or maybe you just want to play our special game." He said with a creepy smile on his face that made Luhki shiver. She didn't know why he made her feel so icky, but he did. She never felt like this around any other adults, just him.

"Why is our special game a secret?" she asked, "I thought secrets were bad."

"Who told you that?" Rick asked, twirling the five year old's hair between his fingers and stroking the side of her jaw with his thumb.

"My daddy." The little girl answered.

"Well, let me tell you something, honey. Daddy isn't always right. Besides, you can't tell them about me, remember?" Rick went on, sliding his hand up to pull down the blanket and uncover the pretty little thing. "I'm the boogie man."

"No you're not." Luhki said, tilting her chin up defiantly.

"What?" Rick chuckled, "I'm not?"

"No." Luhki spat, "My daddy is!"

Rick laughed quietly and took hold of both of Luhki's shoulders and moved to pull her from the bed. He didn't want to wake up her little sister now did her?

"You should really listen to her, you know." A clear voice came from nowhere.

Rick slowly turned and looked into the darkness. There, in the far corner of the room, perched in the fluffy chair like an angel of death sat Jackson. His crystalline eyes were narrowed into slits and his hands toyed with an extremely large dagger that looked to be sharpened to a razor's edge. Rick rose unsteadily to his feet and like a bolt of lightening, Jackson was on him. Rick hadn't even seen the man lift himself from the chair, but he was up and had him pinned to the floor in less than a heartbeat.

Jackson held Rick to the floor by pressing his knee down hard onto his throat. Rick's lower body flopped around in the likeness of a fish out of water but the strain on his neck left him incapable of forming any sounds.

"Luhki, angel," Jackson said without looking away from Rick's contorted face. "Why don't you take Mariah and go into the living room for a while?" His eyes flashed maliciously, "And don't come back in here no matter what you hear."

Luhki wasted no time. She jerked her little sister awake and dragged her from the bed and room. Mariah began crying because she didn't why she had been woken and the sound broke Jackson's heart as the two girls descended down the hall. He turned his entire focus back onto Rick.

"What makes you think that you have the right to lay one finger on my daughter?" he growled.

Lisa stared at herself in the floor length mirror in Cynthia's bedroom. The dress that Cynthia had picked out was gorgeous. It was black silk with a lace outer layer. The skirt was cut up to her mid thigh and swished when she moved even the slightest bit. The sleeves slit ruffles that fit high on her shoulders and it had a low cut V neck that accentuated her cleavage while still covering her scar. Cynthia had excellent taste.

"Do you like it?" Cynthia asked from where she was propped up on the bed.

"I love it." Lisa gushed, "But, you really didn't have to do this."

"I wanted to, Leese. Besides, I took one look at it and knew that you had to have it."

"Mommy!" Luhki cried as she ran into the room, dragging Mariah along in her wake.

Lisa saw her two daughters, both of them crying and she dropped to her knees and caught them both in her arms. "Okay, okay. Calm down." She said, not knowing whether she was talking to them or to herself. "What happened?"

"Daddy…" Luhki said, "Daddy…he…"

Lisa didn't need to hear anymore. She was on her feet and out the door in search of her husband. She raced through the living room to get to the other end of the house where the guest room was. She could hear crashing and banging coming from behind the door and burst in determined to come to the aid of her husband should he need it. What she found was Jackson standing over Rick, who was lying on the floor with blood pouring from his nose and lips. Lisa saw the knife in Jackson's hand and sprang forward, tugging it from his grasp. Jackson spun around with fire in his eyes, his fist raised to strike, but he drew back when he saw that it was Lisa.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing?" Lisa demanded.

Jackson spoke very calmly, "Lisa, give me back my knife."

"No." Lisa said, shaking her head.

"Lisa…he's…he's gone crazy." Rick mumbled from his place on the floor.

"Shut up!" Jackson bellowed, reaching down and grabbing Rick by the hair and forcing to sit up on his knees. He jerked his head, making him look up at Lisa, "Tell her what you were just doing."

Lisa looked from man to man, not sure what to make of the situation. Jackson quickly slammed Rick's head against the wall and forced him to return his gaze to Lisa. "Tell her! Or better yet…" Jackson said, dragging Rick past Lisa and out the bedroom door to the hallway. At the end of the hallway, Cynthia was kneeling with her arms wrapped around Luhki and Mariah, "tell your wife what you were about to do! Tell her what I just found you doing to _my _daughter!"

Jackson heard Lisa gasp from behind him. She was leaning against the door jam of the bedroom with both hands over her mouth, still clutching Jackson's knife. The tip had scratched her temple and there was a small trickle of blood dripping down her cheek, but she didn't even notice. She had zoned out the moment she had heard Jackson's accusation against Rick. She knew instantly what he meant. Now where most mothers' first instinct in this situation would probably be denial, Lisa knew that Jackson would never lie, let alone about something like this. Lisa leaned against the door jam, using it to hold herself up. Her body slumped forward and she tilted her head into the doorframe, closing her eyes. She wanted nothing more than to pretend that this wasn't really happening to her family, but she knew better.

Cynthia rose to her feet and stood on shaky legs, bracing herself against the wall because she feared if she didn't, she would fall. She felt as though she had just been blindsided with a baseball bat. "What are you saying, Jackson?" she asked, her voice trembling.

"Tell her?" Jackson exclaimed as he shook Rick's head violently back and forth, "Tell her what you've been doing to my daughter!"

"Cynthia..." Rick started, but was cut off when Jackson slammed his head into the wall again.

"Stop it!" Cynthia cried, "Rick? What's going on?"

"What's going on…" Jackson shouted, shoving Rick forward so that the man landed on his face, "is that your husband has been molesting my daughter!"

The words left Jackson's mouth and Lisa left her position at the door and flew at Rick, only to be caught in mid air by Jackson. "Luhkie," he called while struggling to hold Lisa back, "take Mariah back to aunt Cynthia's bedroom and shut the door." Luhki just stood there wide eyed at what was happening in front of her. "Now!" Jackson commanded.

That snapped the little girl to attention. She took Mariah's hand and led her away. Once they were out of earshot, Jackson put his mouth to Lisa's ear. "Not here." He said and Lisa stilled in his arms.

Rick crawled toward Cynthia and put his hand on her leg. She recoiled fiercely from his touch. "Don't touch me." She hissed, then without warning, she kicked him in the face. Then her eyes met Jackson's, "Get him out of my house."

Jackson nodded as his arms went slack around Lisa's waist and then released it all together. He once again took Rick's hair into his hand and began to drag him down the hall. An unspoken promise passed between Cynthia and Lisa that Cynthia would look after the kids and Lisa took her place by her husband's side. Once she heard the door slam shut, Cynthia sank to her knees and began to weep openly. She had been married to the man for three years, dating him for six, and she had never known; never suspected a thing. She felt as though she didn't know him at all…and it was the truth. She really didn't.

Jackson peeled out of Cynthia's driveway in Lisa's SUV. Lisa was at his side in the passenger seat and Rick was bleeding all over the leather interior of her backseat. Lisa's entire body was trembling with rage she was so angry. The pervert in the backseat of her car had put his hands on her daughter; on her five year old daughter. He had touched her and made her touch him. She wanted to strangle him; she wanted to feel his body go limp as she choked the life out of him. She tried to get her mind on other things by looking out the window. It had stopped raining.

"Where are we going?" she asked Jackson.

As soon as the question left her lips, Jackson steered the four-wheel drive off of the road into a field. Lisa was tossed up and down and all around the cab as the car bounced along the unsteady terrain. Jackson didn't look at her. He kept his eyes focused out in front of as though he knew exactly where they were going. Rick groaned from his lying position and the sound made Lisa want to leap over the center console and claw his eyes out. Once the road was no longer in their field of vision, Jackson slammed on the breaks and the SUV went skidding to a stop.

Jackson flung open his door and leapt out, jerking the back door open as well. He moved so quickly that it all seemed to be one fluid motion. He grabbed Rick and pulled him out of the car, dragging him around to the front so that they were both in the light of the headlights. Lisa was still fumbling with the door handle when Jackson was throwing Rick to the ground in front of the car. She finally got the door open and jumped out, her bare feet sloshing into the mud with a wet, slapping sound. She trotted over to Jackson, mud splattering up onto her legs as she went.

Jackson kicked Rick in the ribs and the man rolled, coming to a stop face down in the mud. "Jackson?" Lisa said coming up to his side and Jackson turned to face her.

"Your call, Leese." He said, holding his arms out wide.

Lisa looked down at Rick, who was looking up at her, and a chill ran through her body. This bastard had put his hands on her little girl. He had stolen her childhood; her innocence. She looked back up at Jackson; into his blue eyes. He was asking her what she wanted him to do. She had never in her wildest dreams thought that she would be put into this position and she had to look away. But, slowly, she brought her eyes back up to Jackson's, her face twisted in an expression of anger, but at the same time one of deep and troubled sadness. "Make sure he doesn't lose consciousness." She seethed, offering him his knife.

Jackson bowed his head forward in compliance to her command. When he straightened, he jerked his jacket off and held it out to her. She took the coat at the same time he took the knife from her hands. As Jackson turned and started toward where Rick was trying to crawl away, Lisa got back into the car, turned the radio on, laid the seat back, and closed her eyes. She knew her husband and she knew that she didn't want to see what he was about to do to Rick. She knew what he was going to do and that was enough for her.

It was two and a half hours later before Jackson returned to the car. He climbed into the passenger seat, waking Lisa from where she had dozed off. She woke with a start and looked at him as he turned shut his door. He was shirtless and saturated with blood. It was an image she had seen before. He tossed the bloody dagger into the center console and reached forward to turn the radio down. Lisa licked her lips and tried to form words in her parched mouth. "Did he pass out?" she asked, her voice rough and scratchy thanks to her dry throat.

"Five times." Jackson said, "Reviving a torture victim is something they taught me on day one."

Lisa had long since learned not to even bother asking who _they _were. In the distance, she saw the faint flickering of a fire. Rick. And probably Jackson's shirt. She shifted in her seat and Jackson eyed her as he put the car into reverse. The thick coppery smell of blood permeated the air inside the car and it choked Lisa as she breathed in. She had images of what Jackson had done to Rick dancing in her head. In her mind, it was better than what he deserved.

"That's a hell of a dress, Leese." Jackson said.

Lisa looked at him in disgust as he spoke. There were some things about Jackson that she was afraid she would never get used to. For example, his complete and utter lack of consideration for human life. He had just spent two and half hours, give or take, torturing and most likely mutilating a man that they had known for close to six years and he still had the ability to just up and say something like that to her. She wanted to slap him. But that was just who he was. He was so good to her and the kids that she sometimes forgot that fact; the fact that he was still very much the Jackson Rippner from that damned plane. She suddenly felt very exposed and moved to cover herself, pulling her arms across her chest.

They got back to Cynthia's house, having silently made a pact not to tell her what had gone down in that field. Hell, Lisa didn't even really want to know. Jackson had so many talents, it was hard to imagine which ones he had narrowed it down to. Jackson tore into their suitcase, which was sitting by the door, and slid into a clean, dark blue shirt. He made his way into the kitchen, Lisa trailing slowly after him, hugging her arms over her chest as though she were cold. She watched Jackson wipe his face with a handful of paper towels at the same time he pulled a can of soda from the fridge and poured its contents into a glass on the counter. He put his hand into his pocket and fished out something which he then dropped into the glass. Lisa narrowed her eyes to watch the several bead-like items fall from his hand into the glass making multiple little clinking sounds as they did so. Lisa knew without further inspection that they were teeth. By the morning, the soda will have dissolved them. No dental records would ever be used to identify Rick should his body ever be found, though she doubted that that had been Jackson's main motivation for pulling them.

Jackson turned to look at her. His shirt hung open over his bare chest and he propped his hip against the edge of the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. He smiled at her. "Come here to me." He said.

"What did you do to him?" Lisa asked, standing perfectly still.

Jackson simply shook his head and held out his hand to her. He knew that she didn't really want to know the details of what had befallen Rick Monogan for his sins. She simply needed the peace of mind that only came with the knowledge that he was gone. Lisa ever so slowly placed her own hand into it and he gently tugged her to him, enveloping her in his arms. He buried his face in her hair and breathed in her fresh clean scent. He loved the way she always smelled so good. Vanilla. She always smelled of vanilla. He ran a hand over the back of her head, letting it slide around to the front. He ran the tips of his fingers along the line of her jaw to the underside of her chin, tipping her head back to get her to face him. "He won't bother us again." He whispered, kissing the end of her nose.

Lisa's chin quivered as she blinked back the fresh tears that were threatening to spill over her lids. She pushed up on her tiptoes and kissed Jackson, wrapping her arms around his neck, her fingers bearing down into his shoulders. It was odd to think about. Jackson was kind of like a normal husband. The family had had a problem and in his own way, Jackson had taken care of that problem. That was the man's job. Taking care of the problems that arise; and Jackson was good at that.

Jackson had just moved to kiss her again, but quickly turned his head away when a faint noise caught his attention. There was something sounding like whimpering coming from the bedroom.

"What…" Lisa began, but Jackson silenced her instantly when he pressed his finger to his lips.

He slinked around the corner, wishing that he hadn't left his knife in the car. Lisa followed suit, mimicking his movements step for step. They crept along the hallway, making their way to Cynthia's bedroom, which seemed to be the source of the noise. The door was cracked, so Jackson nudged it with his toe and it slowly creaked the rest of the way open.

Cynthia was slumped against the foot of the bed, her eyes at half mast, a stream of blood slithering down her cheek like a serpent from a gash at the top of her forehead. Lisa peered over Jackson's shoulder, spotted her friend and rushed forward to get to her but her husband held out his arm to stop her.

"No!" A voice called from within the room, "No, come in, please! I've been dying to meet you all."

Cynthia's eyes looked to the side and her head lulled back and forth and Lisa pushed past Jackson and flew into the room, falling to her knees in front of Cynthia. Jackson took only two steps in and scanned the room, his eyes focusing on the figure standing in the corner of the room.

Lisa looked up at the man that Jackson's attention was zoomed in on. He was tall and fit with broad shoulders and black hair fashionably slicked back. He wore an expensive looking suit, had deep brown eyes, and a scar at the very bottom of his chin. A single corner of his mouth turned upward as he looked from Jackson to Lisa and back to Jackson.

"Wow, Rippner," the man said, "she's cute."

"What do you want?" Jackson asked.

"Her." He said, pointing at Lisa.

"No." Jackson responded.

"Jackson?" Lisa broke in, keeping a firm hold on Cynthia's arm "What's going on?"

"Remember Mellmott, Leese?" Jackson said without taking his eyes off of the man in the corner.

"Of course." Lisa said, not understanding.

"Meet Clyde," Jackson introduced, "his brother."

**Author's Note: **Be sure to tell me what you think! Just a friendly little reminder to review:)


	6. Chapter Five: Clyde

**Author's Note: **Sorry for the delay..again. This sight has been acting funny lately...maybe it's just on my computer but...oh well. Here's the next chapter. Thanks for the reviews. I was kinda worried about what people would think. Let me know how you feel about this one, too!

**Chapter Five: Clyde**

"So this is the little thing that fucked up your world." Clyde said, taking a step forward toward Lisa. Jackson immediately countered in front of him to block his path. "Your blouse is open, sweetie."

Jackson didn't respond, but left his shirt hanging open and continued to glare into Clyde's eyes. "What are you doin' here, Clyde."

"That pretty little wife of yours killed my brother." Clyde said, his eyes glaring at Lisa as she began to scoot herself and Cynthia toward the door, "Oh, don't go anywhere, sweetheart."

Lisa stopped moving, staring at the stranger in front of her. He looked like a professional. Like he knew what it was that he was there to do. His eyes were cold and eerie and determined. He seemed like he only had one objective on his mind. He made her think of the way Jackson was when he was working and that thought scared the hell out of her. She had seen Jackson at work. He was the best at what he did and she couldn't help but wonder...was this guy as good as Jackson?

"Your brother was trying to kill her." Jackson said with a grin, "Fair trade."

"Tell that to him." Clyde said, matching Jackson's smirk with one of equally terrifying intensity.

"Oh, I can't. Didn't you hear, man?" Jackson said, "He's dead."

"Jackson?" Lisa said, her voice trembling.

"Don't worry, Leese." Jackson said, sidestepping to put himself in Clyde's path to Lisa again, "We work for the same people and I promise you, they will be less that pleased when they hear that Clyde here has been threatening their favorite."

"You can't play the teacher's pet card, Rippner! Not this time."Clyde snapped, "I have no intentions of touching a hair on your head...but this bitch..."

Lisa rose unsteadily to her feet, though staying as close as she could to Cynthia who remained frazzled on the floor. "Jackson?" Lisa said again, "Where are the kids?"

Jackson felt his throat tighten up painfully, as though he had swallowed something very sour. "Clyde..."

"Three kids, man, damn! What are you two, rabbits?" Clyde laughed, "I mean, what a sick world with all those little Rippners running around."

"Where are my children, Clyde?" Jackson said, his voice calm and stern. Lisa observed his straightened posture and raised shoulders. He was switching into defense mode. Prepared. Alert. Ready for anything. That was her Jackson.

"I assure you, they are perfectly safe for the time being. My associate has them back at your house." Clyde said, spreading his hands in surrender, "Just a bit of insurance to make sure that you cooperate."

"Cooperate how?" Jackson demanded.

"This murdering bitch comes with me and you're free to go and collect your children."

Jackson wanted nothing more than to say 'no deal'; problem was, in the back of his mind he saw the image of Luhki's green eyes, Mariah with her arms spread out wide spinning circles in the front yard, and he could hear Jack Jr.'s uncontrollable laugh. He couldn't risk his children, but he wouldn't give up Lisa either. He glanced over at Lisa. She was up on her feet and had at some point taken a ready stance, her feet shoulder width apart, legs slightly bent at the knees. Her eyes locked with his to let him know; she was ready to run. All he had to do was say the word. Jackson looked back to Clyde, tucking his hand into his pants pocket. He smirked, winked at Clyde at the same moment Lisa took off behind him for the door. Jackson pulled her car keys from his pocket and tossed them back over his head, Lisa catching them without breaking stride and she was out the door. Clyde finally snapped into reality and moved to go after Lisa, but Jackson caught him by the shoulders and shoved him back against the wall. Clyde lost his balance and slid to the floor. Jackson took that chance to jerk Cynthia to her feet and pull her through the window.

Clyde got back up to his feet and gave Jackson no further consideration. His target had gone through the bedroom door and he gave chase. He flung himself out of the bedroom door and slammed into the opposite wall of the hallway just in time to see a flash of Lisa's auburn hair and skirt as she exited through the front door.

Lisa had just gotten her hand on the door handle of her car, when a voice broke into her already racing thoughts.

"Where you goin', bitch?" Clyde said from his position leaned against the hood of her car. He took a step forward, causing Lisa let out an involuntary scream and then without thinking about it, she flung the driver's side door open. It slammed against Clyde's face and knocked him on his ass. Lisa moved to get into the seat, but he caught her by the calf and pulled her to the ground with him. Jackson had pulled the same stunt about a million times and she didn't even have to think about her retaliation. On instinct, she kicked him in the head, using her shin to deliver the majority of the blow. With a scream, Clyde released his hold on her leg and rolled off to the side, giving Lisa the chance to get back up to her feet.

Clyde scrambled to his own feet and grabbed a handful of Lisa's hair and dragged her back out of the car and slammed her into the picnic table that sat beside the house. Lisa rolled over the table top and went crashing down onto the bench, causing it to snap in two under her weight. She used her hands to climb the wall and pull herself to her feet at the same time Clyde was coming around the table toward her. Lisa grabbed half of the broken bench and used every ounce of strength she had in her to swing it at his head. Clyde threw up his arm just in the nick of time, his forearm catching the brunt of the blow. But she managed to hit him with enough force to knock him first into the wall and then he sank to the ground, giving Lisa the opportunity to scamper back over the picnic table without interference.

Jackson and Cynthia hit the soggy ground outside the window with a resounding squish. Cynthia immediately sank to her knees in the dirt, but Jackson was instantly on his feet and alert to his surroundings. He had already worked out this escape route. He was less than fifteen yards from the garage and could make that run on foot in less than three seconds. He turned to Cynthia, who was sitting on the ground hyperventilating. She obviously wasn't dealing with the situation very well. Poor girl. Somehow she always managed to get dragged into his and Lisa's messes. She probably wondered why these things always seemed to happen to her without ever making the connection to him or Lisa. She never even would have considered placing the blame on them. That wasn't who she was. Jackson cupped her face in his hands and forced her to look at him. "Cynthia, I need you to listen to me."

Her eyes locked with his, but her breathing didn't calm and she seemed lost in her own head.

"Cynthia, he's not after you, okay." Jackson said, using the same voice he used with Mariah when she had a bad dream, "You're safe as long as you stay here. Lock the doors and if you hear anyone in the house, call the police. Do you understand?"

Clyde nodded, but he had his doubts as to whether or not she had actually comprehended anything he had just said to her. He straightened his stance just in time to see Lisa's silver SUV flying out of the driveway and down the road. A standard black Lexus followed not long after. Jackson cursed under his breath then turned back to Cynthia, "Cynthia, I'm gonna need your car keys."

Lisa's eyes darted back and forth between the road and the headlights in her rearview mirror. She had the gas pedal pinned to the floorboard, but the car behind her was still gaining ground. Such was the burden of choosing a sensible family car even if it was a Mercedes. The Lexus nudged her bumper and the SUV started wobbling back and forth as Lisa fought with the steering wheel to regain control. Clyde rear-ended her again and she let out a shriek that was all together pointless since there was no one around to hear it, but what else could she do? Thinking as quickly as she could, she made a hard right turn onto a side street, her left two tires coming off the ground before coming back down with a jolt. This car wasn't built for high speed chases she realized as she let out the breath that she had been holding the entire time she had been airborne. She heard the Lexus's tires squealing as it made the turns as well.

She glanced up into the rearview mirror again, just in time to see the headlights swerve out of her line of vision as Clyde maneuvered to bring the car up along side of her. The Lexus raced forward by her side and its driver jerked the wheel to the right and sideswiped Lisa. She heard the sickening crunch of metal against metal as one side of her Mercedes went off the road. She took out a few mailboxes with a scream but she managed to get all four wheels back onto the pavement without doing any real serious damage. Clyde swerved off into an apparent cow field as another car came down the road, blasting its horn at him, but as soon as it passed he was right back at Lisa's side with another blow to deal out. The third time he sideswiped her, he sent them both spinning in 360 circles and eventually landing in a six foot deep ditch at the edge of another field, this one appeared to be along the end of a wooded marsh land. Clyde's Lexus crashed on its side in the ditch and stayed there, but Lisa's car went rolling end over end, finally coming to a stop upside down on its roof.

Hanging upside down in her seat, Lisa groaned and held her hand to her head, pulling it away to find it covered with blood. She tongued at her freshly busted lip and tried to get her bearings. She let her hands drop above her head to test the surface of the ceiling, which was covered with broken bits of glass from the shattered windows and windshield. It wasn't the most appealing prospect, landing on broken glass but...whatever. She reached up and unhooked her seatbelt, gravity directly taking effect and pulling her body toppling down from her seat with a crash. She let out a quick yelp of pain as little shards of glass embedded themselves into her bare arms and legs. She looked out the window and could see the headlights from the Lexus shining upward into the dark sky and its horn was going off steadily as though something were leaning against it. Hopefully Clyde's severed head. With a shaky intake of breath, she slid over to the passenger side of the car and reached up, forcing the glove box open. As soon as she did so, the 9mm clattered down from within it, coming to a rest at her stomach. She grabbed hold of it then used both arms to haul herself through the shattered passenger window. She paused for a moment, bracing herself against the wrecked vehicle, leaning down and using the palm of her free hand to brush the bits of glass from her knees. She took the time to scan the marshy field and then broke into a dead sprint across it.

Jackson swerved Cynthia's Volkswagon Cabrio swiftly along different back streets, dodging cars parked along the side of the road and trash cans that had been hauled to the ends of the driveways for morning pick up. He knew that his Lisa could take care of herself. He wasn't too worried about her, having every confidence that she could more than handle Clyde Mellmott. It was his kids he had to get to. They were the only thing on his mind as he steered the car onto his street.

If anything had happened to his kids, there wouldn't be enough pieces of Clyde's body left around for anyone to identify. He switched off the headlights as he pulled the car into his own driveway, slipping from the cab noiselessly and creeping up to the front door. He slinked inside the house, which was completely silent. He had never heard his home so quiet before. It was weird. He slid into the kitchen and drew a butcher's knife from the holder to use as a weapon. It was a far cry from his K-bar, but it would serve its purpose and any knife in his hands was a precise as a surgeon's scalpel.

Somewhere in the distance as Lisa was running, the steady buzzing in her head suddenly stopped. It was the horn. The horn stopped blaring, and Lisa instantly froze where she stood. The silencing of the horn could only mean one thing. Clyde was out of his car. She snapped her head back into the mission at hand just as rain began falling on her face and kicked her pace up a notch, sloshing barefoot through the field, crouched down, making herself as small as was physically possible. She ducked behind trees whenever she came to them, but the wood was so spread out and she had to keep moving. Her legs were splattered with mud from the knees down and her thighs were growing tight and stiff but she didn't notice the pain, her body was coursing with too much adrenaline for her to feel anything else. If she survived the night, she would sure as hell feel it all in the morning. Her joints would be stiff and sore from working out without the proper warm up and stretching that they required. Her field hockey coach in high school used to lay into players for not stretching before practice. Lisa could practically hear his voice as she ran. She leapt over a stream with the grace of a track star and continued running without faltering so much as a step. Jackson had told her once that she was a beautiful runner. She didn't know why the compliment was running through her head at that moment, but it was and it seemed to give her an extra nudge as she kicked up her speed yet again. Maybe it was the thought of Jackson.

She heard the gunshot, but it wasn't until the bullet slammed into the tree that she was leaned up against, sending slivers of bark exploding into the air, that she let the shock sink in. She ducked around to the other side of the large round tree truck and took off running. It was too dark and she couldn't see anything. She didn't know where Clyde was or how close to her he was or if he had a clear view of her or not. All that she knew was that she had to get away and so...she ran. She could stop, turn, and shoot...but she couldn't see him and if he could see her then she was more likely to just be shot than to actually shoot him. There was a thicker grouping of trees up ahead so Lisa began pumping her legs twice as hard in desperation to get to their protective cover.

Her lungs were burning, her throat was scratched and tight, and her joints had begun to ache terribly, but she weaved in and out of the thatch of trees hoping that Clyde might lose sight of her and she could get to the other side of the field to the road, which was the road that led to her house. If she could just get there, she could get to her kids. Nothing else was important. Just as the road came into view, a pair of large hands grabbed her by the face and jerked back, sending her feet flying up over her head, her hand losing its grasp on the gun. She landed hard on her back, sending mud flying in all directions. As soon as she hit the ground, she was set up by the huge stone hard body of Clyde. She heard the sound of the gun hitting the ground with a loud sloppy thump somewhere above her head, but Clyde already had her pinned to the ground.

One huge hand clasped around her throat and began to squeeze as the other held the barrel of a snub nose .38 to her temple. "You may have bested Rippner, bitch! You may have even managed to get to my brother, but I'm a different breed, understand?" he spat, tightening his hold on her throat as he spoke.

Droplets of water were beating down on her face and in her eyes, making it hard for her to keep them open in order to focus on her attacker. She did however hear the distinct sound of him drawing back the hammer on the gun as she splayed her arms out at her sides, her hands groping over the ground for anything that she could use to hit him. The only thing her fingers found was a stick no wider than a pencil. It would have to do, besides, she was good with things like that. She closed her hand around it and brought it up, jabbing it into Clyde's ear and grinding it as far down into his ear canal as she could. Clyde let out a scream, dropping his gun as his hand flew up to cover his bleeding ear. Lisa brought her knee crashing up into Clyde's groin and then pushed him off of her. She jumped up, chunks of mud clinging to her skin, and kicked him in the ribs with her barefoot, which probably hurt her more than it did him, but it was the principle of the matter.

"Explain something to me, would you?" She screamed, kicking him again, "Why do you men feel so obliged to always try to strangle a woman? It never works and it's really hard to explain the bruises!"

She took about three steps away from him and dropped to her knees, feeling around the ground until she found the 9mm she had dropped. Once she had her hands on it, she spun around and took aim to finish the job. But, when she turned around, Clyde had disappeared. He was just gone. Lisa weighed her options. She could either fumble around in the dark looking for him and giving him the chance to get the drop on her or she could make a break for the road, get to her house and her kids. No contest. Taking one final look around the vicinity, she turned on her heel and started once again for the road as the hard rain softened into what could best be described as a dribble.

Jackson crept from the kitchen down the hallway. All the lights in the house had been turned off and it was pitch black. It made no difference to Jackson though, his perfect vision adjusted faster than most people's to the dark. It came with the trade. He slinked along the walls with feline like prowess, checking each door that he came to for any movement. After he found the entire downstairs void of any life whatsoever, he turned his gaze to the stairs that led to his and Lisa's bedroom.

He took the stairs, keeping his body stooped low and alert, his right hand holding the knife out to the side of his body to be able to deliver a quick blow, his left hand touching each stair before he put his foot on it. When he reached the top step, he slowly peeked his head around the wall to peer into the room.

Jack Jr. giggled and pointed at him from the playpen that was positioned between his reading chair and the bookcase in the corner. Jackson's fatherly instinct was to rush to his son and hug him and get him out of the house, but the professional instincts took over and instead he craned his head to see further into the room. Mariah and Luhki were sitting on the bed playing with a couple of their Barbie dolls. He scanned the rest of the room and upon see no one else, her came fully into it. He kept himself flattened against the wall however, until he was able to check the bathroom. There wasn't anyone in there either.

"Hey, daddy!" Mariah chimed from the bed.

"Daddy!" Luhki exclaimed at the same time as her little sister.

"Hey, girls!" Jackson said, dropping to his knees by the edge of the bed and kissing each girl on the cheek. He dropped the knife to the floor so that he wouldn't scare either of them. "Are you okay? Is anybody hurt? What about Jack? Is he okay, too?"

"What's wrong with you, daddy?" Luhki laughed.

"Luhki," Jackson said, focusing all of his attention onto his eldest child, "do you know who brought you here?"

Luhki pointed over his shoulder. He heard her scream the second before something hard hit him in the back of the head and everything went black. He heard Luhki's voice for a moment more, but it slowly faded farther and farther away, and then vanished altogether.

Lisa tore through the field, glancing over her shoulder every so often to make sure that Clyde wasn't right behind her about to grab her again. She could see her house...and the car backing out of her driveway. Her feet hit the pavement and she shifted her weight to change directions to head for her house. The car that had just pulled out of her driveway was coming straight for her and the sudden image of her children tied up in the trunk came flooding through her head and without giving it any further consideration, she leapt into the speeding vehicle's path. The dark blue Lancer's tires screeched in protest as the breaks were forcibly applied and it skidded sideways to a halt. The loud squealing noise startled Lisa so that she stumbled backwards and lost her footing. causing her to fall to the asphalt. The driver's side door flew open and the driver came clambering out of the car. "Oh, my God! Are you okay? I mean...what the...Lisa?"

Lisa looked up and her breath caught in the back of her throat. "Davey?"

**Author's Note: **Please, please, please, let me know what you think!


	7. Chapter Six: The Associate is

**Author's Note: **Thanks for the reviews, all! Here's the next chapter. Be sure to let me know what you think of it.

**Chapter Six: The Associate Is...**

"Wow, Lisa? Are you...are you okay? What are you doin' out here?" Davey said, leaning forward and holding out his hand in an attempt to take her by the arm and help her to her feet. But Lisa shifted away from him quickly and revealed the gun that had been out of sight by her side, aiming it at his head.

"Back off!" she demanded.

"Holy shit!" Davey exclaimed, straightening his stance and holding his hands up, palms open, level with his shoulders. He took two steps back. "Why, uh, why do you have a gun?"

"So I can shoot people." Lisa said, twisting up onto her knees and slowly climbing to her feet, keeping the gun trained firmly on Davey. "Why were you at my house?"

"What?" Davey asked, his eyes fixed on the weapon in her hand.

"What have you done with them?" Lisa asked, near hysterics.

"What are you talking about?" Davey said, taking a step toward her.

Without the slightest hesitation, Lisa kicked him hard in the shin with her bare foot and then, as soon as he hunched forward from the blow, she delivered a perfect left jab to his jaw. Among his many talents, Jackson had also been a feather weight boxer in college, though you never would have guessed it considering his perfect nose, but he had been. On their fifth date, he had taken Lisa to a gym and taught her the basics. Not exactly the perfect romantic evening, but so very Jackson. He had been especially impressed with her footwork, which she automatically attributed to her days on the field hockey team in high school.

Davey hobbled in front of her, favoring his just kicked leg and cupping both hands over his mouth which had begun to pool with thick coppery blood. Boxing was a surprisingly useful skill. She didn't trust Davey, but she was far from ready to shoot him. Hence, a secondary form of sedation. Davey let out a low groan that turned into a whimper. If he thought that that had been painful, he should see her right cross.

"What are you doing here?" Lisa demanded again, lifting the gun once again to aim it at him.

Davey turned away from her and spit out a mouthful of blood. "Damn, Lisa!" he exclaimed, "What the hell'd you do that for?"

"Answer me, Davey!"

"That really hurt." He continued to whine.

Lisa rolled her eyes, "Good Lord, suck it up!" She was beginning to sound like Jackson. Scary thought that was. She readjusted her stance and twisted her hands around the grip of the gun, almost as though to reassure herself that it was still there.

Davey looked up at her incredulously and wiped a smear of blood from his chin with the back of his hand. Lisa studied him carefully. He had just happened to show up at a rather inconvenient time in her life and after learning how Jackson and people like him worked, she no longer believed in coincidences.

"Just now, you pulled out of my driveway. Why were you there?" she said sternly.

"Yeah, I was there." Davey began fumbling over his words so quickly they were barely legible and his face turned this bright shade of red, "I came to see you. I wanted to, well, I don't really know what I was wanting. I wanted to see you, I guess. It was stupid. I know. I now see the error of my ways, but I thought...I just thought...I don't know what I thought..."

He continued to ramble as Lisa just stared at him, trying to sort through everything that he was saying until she finally couldn't take anymore. "Davey! Stop talking!"

Davey not only quit talking, he pressed his lips together in a tight thin line and blushed, resembling a very contrite adolescent youth. It struck her then just how young he really did look. He appeared about as menacing as a tee ball player, but Lisa had been fooled before and she did not plan on making the same mistake again. She kept the gun aimed right between his eyes.

"Why should I believe anything you say?" she said.

Davey looked at her like he thought that she had gone completely insane. "Lisa, I don't know what's goin' on, here, but, why would I lie?"

With those words coming from his young mouth, standing there looking at her with his hands spread in a gesture of innocence, Lisa didn't know how she should feel toward him. He reminded her very much of the way that she used to be when she was his age. Was he really capable of being a killer? Yes. Anyone was capable of it. There were too many thoughts going through her head at once, she couldn't get them straight long enough to wrap her mind around even one of them.

Lisa stood there with the 9mm fixed on him, but her hand had begun to shake violently. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know whether or not she could trust him. She wanted to trust him. She wanted very badly to trust him, but could she? With everything that she had been through in the past, could she really allow herself to trust someone new? Someone who wasn't in her little circle? Someone who wasn't Jackson?

She was answered when a bullet flew past her thigh and slammed into the front left fender of Davey's dark blue Lancer. Davey, who apparently was not used to being shot at, hit his knees. "Holy shit! Someone just shot at us! Is someone shooting at us?" he cried.

Lisa swung around, the gun leaving Davey and scanning the horizon of the field. She couldn't see him, but she knew that Clyde was out there, recomposing himself to strike. Where was he? Where did that shot come from? "Get up. We need to get out of here?" Lisa demanded, skipping to the other side of the car to get in. She decided to take a chance on Davey, hoping that she would live to regret it. She slid into the seat and yelled to Davey as she pulled her door closed.

"Come on!"

Davey crawled on his hands and knees to get back into the driver's seat. When a second bullet hit his door, he slammed his foot down on the gas pedal. He the right idea in Lisa's opinion. The only problem was that he was driving in the wrong direction. He was heading away from her house!

"Wait!" she exclaimed, "Wait, you're going the wrong way! Turn around!"

"Are you kidding?" Davey shouted, "Someone back there is shooting at us!"

"No, you have to go back! We have to go to my house! My children!"

When Davey made no move to change direction, Lisa, without thinking about the consequences, leaned over and grabbed hold of the steering wheel and jerked it hard toward her. The car swerved into a mailbox, but Davey fought her off of him and quickly regained control of the car.

"What are you thinking?" he screamed at her.

"Turn around!"

"No!"

"Turn around!"

"I said no!"

Lisa cocked the hammer back on the 9mm and held the barrel up to his temple. "And I said turn around."

Davey had just looked down the barrel of that gun, fear more than evident in his eyes, when they were hit from behind and Lisa went crashing forward, her stomach hitting the dashboard straight on. The blow knocked the wind out of her and she had to lean back and mentally talk herself into calming down before she could return to breathing normally; but she managed to keep a hold on the gun. Clyde. How in the hell had he gotten another car so fast?

"God!" Davey said, "What pissed this guy off so bad?"

"Misunderstanding."

"Misunderstanding? What kind of a misunderstanding?"

"Davey," Lisa warned, her breathing finally becoming steady once again, "shut up and drive."

Clyde moved forward to rear end the car once more, but Davey as it would seem had some experience driving, and ducked quickly into the other lane, avoiding the strike altogether. Lisa scooted back up in her seat and peered over her shoulder out the rear window. She couldn't tell what kind of car it was that Clyde was in, but he was managing to keep up with them. She settled back around in her seat and looked at the road ahead of her. It had started to rain again. She turned and fixed her gaze once more on Davey.

"Turn around." She said.

Davey's eyes were darting back and forth from the road to the mirror and he was every so often swerving out of Clyde's point of attack, much the opposite of how a race car driver swerves to block an opponent from passing them. The ride was unsteady and Lisa kept bouncing up and down and slamming into the door every now and then. She found herself wondering exactly where it was that Davey had learned to drive like that.

"I said turn around, Davey." Lisa said again.

"Lisa, normally, your wish would be my command. But, right now, I'm a little busy." Davey said, jerking the wheel hard to the left, throwing Lisa against the window.

"If you don't turn around, I'm getting out." Lisa said.

"What?" Davey exclaimed.

With that, Lisa grabbed the door handle and with great effort, shoved the door open. She swung her legs out the door of the speeding car, squeezed her eyes tightly shut, and thrust herself forward. Amazing what a mother would do for her children. Davey's hand flew out and caught her by the upper arm and pulled her back into the car.

"Are you insane?" he screamed.

"Let me go!" was Lisa's reply.

"Shut the door!" he said, "And I'll turn around."

Lisa studied his face for only a second, though it felt much longer, as though she didn't believe him. After her moment of consideration, she brought her legs back into the car and pulled the door closed.

As soon as the door was shut, the back window cracked as a bullet crashed into it. Lisa screamed and sank down into her seat, dropping the gun to the floor and covering her head with her hands. She hated cowering. It made her feel so weak and that was a feeling that she had learned to fight ever since she had met her husband. The shot had caught Davey by surprise and he lost control of the car for a brief bit. Another shot cracked the glass in a second place and Lisa pulled her hands down from her face and glared at Davey.

"If you don't turn around now, he's going to kill us both!" she screamed.

She watched as Davey took a long shuttering breath, then all at once he spun the wheel all the way around to the left and slammed on the brakes. The car power slid sideways before coming to a complete stop facing the opposite direction. They were stopped for less than a second and Davey had the pedal nailed to the floorboard yet again. They could hear the sound of Clyde's tires squealing as he attempted the same move, but whatever kind of car it was that he was in, it obviously didn't have the traction for such a manuever. His headlights soon vanished out of the sight of the rearview mirror and Lisa found herself releasing a sigh of relief.

"So, what's so important back this way that you would be willing to kill yourself for?" Davey asked.

Lisa didn't know what to say to him. She didn't know whether to tell him the truth or to make something up. In the end, she chose the simplest explanation. "My children."

"Not your husband, then?" he said, turning to look at her.

Lisa didn't answer him. She cast him a warning look and he turned his eyes back to the road. The truth of the matter was that Lisa didn't know where Jackson was. She didn't know what had passed between him and Clyde once she had run from the room. She knew that if it was within his power, then he would be on his way to the kids as well, but she couldn't leave their safety up to the mere chance that Jackson was on his way. She leaned forward and fumbled around the darkened floorboard in search of the 9mm. Her fingers finally found it and closed around it. When she sat back up, she saw that they were about to turn onto her street and her heart rate quickened. She started taking extra deep breaths to calm herself. She could do this. She knew that she could do this. No. She knew that she had to do this. Her family needed her.

Davey needn't concern himself with Jackson though. He wasn't even in the same category as Jackson. He wasn't even the same species as Jackson was. It was horrible to think, but when other men tried to compare themselves to Jackson, they all came up wanting. It was hard to explain, but in many ways, Jackson was simply...untouchable. With the risk of sounding completely cliche', nobody could even hold a candle to him.

The dread only continued to build in her stomach as they approached the driveway. What would she do? Who would she meet when she went through that door? She halfway expected Mellmott himself to have returned from the grave and be standing there at her front door waiting to finish what he had started all those years ago. That was just the fear though. The logical part of her mind knew that that wasn't the case and that was the side of her mind that she needed to be focusing on at the present. She needed to buckle down and push past all the fear and doubt that was swimming around in her mind. She needed to suck it up...for her kids. For Luhki and her radiant eyes that were a mirror of her own. For Mariah and her bouncy red curls. And for Jack Jr. and his infectious smile. It didn't matter what happened to her, now. They were the only thing that mattered anymore.

"Are you sure about this?" Davey asked from the driver's seat, breaking Lisa from her thoughts.

She looked at him. She had the feeling that he didn't really understand...or believe the gravity of the situation. Poor kid, being dragged into something he had no clue about and no reason to be involved in. She could have cried for him. Then she thought about Cynthia and she could have cried for herself and she probably would later. Mellmott had kidnapped Cynthia, now his brother had broken into her house and to top it all off, he had shot at Davey who hadn't even really gotten to know her yet. She wasn't going to have any friend left if she kept getting them shot at and kidnapped by murderers.

They started to make the turn into her driveway and Lisa felt her entire body start to go rigid. Could she do this? Yes. Was she ready for this? She had to be. She found herself looking around in panic, terrified that Clyde was going to come flying out from one of the side streets near her house and ram into them, killing them both on contact. Nervous adrenaline rushed through her veins as Davey flipped off his headlights and rolled silently into the drive. She took a deep, shuttering breath and paused for just a second to collect herself before moving to get out of the car. But, as she reached for the door handle, Davey caught her by the arm and held her in place with a surprising amount of force. Lisa glanced down at his hand then moved her gaze up to his face.

"Do you really want to do this?" He asked.

Lisa narrowed her eyes at him, "Davey, let me go."

"I'm worried about you, Lisa."

"Let me go, Davey."

"Lisa...I don't want you to go in there."

Suspicion crept into the pit of her stomach and began churning and bubbling violently. She studied the handsome features of his face. "What are you doing here, Davey?"

His dark eyes cast downward for an instant, then met hers once again and she saw something a little too familiar flash through their pretty depths. He made a snap decision and leaned forward and pressed his lips firmly against hers.

Lisa wrenched backwards in disgust and slapped him as hard as she could across the face. That unbelieveable little shit! How dare he try to take advantage of her while she was in this current situation which was quite literally one of life or death? She had half a mind to shoot him just for being an ass.

"What is the matter with you?" she hissed.

Davey had since turned back to face the steering wheel. He was gripping it so tightly that his knuckles had turned white, but he didn't look ashamed or embarrassed. Quite to the contrary, he had this contemptuous sulky look on his face. There was no sign of the boyish contrition that had made her feel so badly for him earlier. Instead, he looked like a spoiled little brat who hadn't gotten his way and there was a frightening look of anger in his expression.

Lisa didn't have the time to worry about his bruised male ego. She pushed the door open and leapt from the car. As soon as the rain hit her face, all thoughts of Davey and what had just occurred between them was driven from her mind and she switched into 'Jackson' mode, searching for the best point of entry into her own house. She needed to get inside undetected. As water began to drip in large droplets down her face, she sloshed her way around to the back of the house.

Jackson's eyes fluttered open. He found himself laid out flat on his back in the middle of his and Lisa's queen size bed. There was a loud ringing in his ears and he felt as though a train was rampaging through his head. He tried to move his arms, but soon looked up to find that his wrists were handcuffed to the bedposts. Now, it would have been one thing had he been latched to the bed with Lisa sitting on top of him, naked...but seeing that she wasn't, the entire situation was very disconcerting. He heard the sound of his girls crying and all of his attention honed in on that. He saw them huddled in the corner of the room, clinging to each other, tears streaming down their round little faces. Jack Jr. was also crying from his position still in his playpen. He went to move his legs but couldn't. He looked down and saw that his ankles were tied to the footboard with neckties. Jackson narrowed his eyes at the strips of material. He knew that he had had a good reason for always having loathed neckties. He took a breath and examined his current state. He needed to calm down and think of a solution. If he could only get his hands on a hair clip of some kind, he could pick the handcuffs and get free.

The girls' crying suddenly burst into one short loud scream and Jackson turned to see what had startled them. Another person had entered the room. His attacker he assumed. He heard the distinct sound of someone clearing their throat and began searching the room for the source. His eyes landed on a pair of rather shapely legs swathed in a pair of tight fitting stylishly ripped blue jeans and a dark blue tee shirt stretched taut across a flat belly. Full lips, button nose, and tasseled sandy blonde hair...in other words, the last person Jackson expected to see. She smiled brightly at him, showing off both rows of her pearly white teeth.

"Maggie?" Jackson breathed.

**Author's Note: **Okay, so, which sin would be worse? Davey being in on the plot against the Rippners or Davey actually having the nerve to kiss Jackson's woman? I'm curious to know. Be sure to tell me what you thought of the chapter, kay!


	8. Chapter Seven: The Babysitter

8

**Author's Note: **Forgive me the extreme delay with this update. I've been super busy with a play that I'm in, but opening night is soon so updates will be better. Just bear with me for a while. Anyways, thanks for all the reviews and on to the story!

**Chapter Seven: The Babysitter **

Maggie, seventeen year old Maggie, the flipping babysitter was standing there, leaned against the doorframe holding a semi automatic handgun. She beamed a blinding smile at Jackson and said, "Hello, Mr. Rippner!"

Jackson figured that she looked very much like the cat that got the cream at the moment…then it occurred to him that he was the cream. He didn't like being gotten much. Point and fact, he didn't like it at all.

"Are you surprised?" she asked, that grin not faltering the slightest little bit.

"Terribly," Jackson said, his voice steady and even. Years of training had taught him how to handle shock. "I didn't think they gave gun permits to bitchy cheerleaders."

Maggie was obviously fairly new and hadn't had as much training as he had. She managed to keep the grin, but her eyes widened considerably and then narrowed. "Language, Jackson." She said, gesturing with her head to where Mariah and Luhki sat in the corner with their arms around each other.

Luhki suddenly sniffed, audibly swallowed, and then, in a very tiny voice, said, "Daddy?"

"Shut up!" Maggie screamed, her head snapping in the direction of the children. "Stupid little brats."

As soon as she had raised her voice to his children, without even realizing it, Jackson begun to ferociously jerk at his bindings in attempt to get to his captor. He wanted to rip her throat out for screaming at his kids like that. "Don't yell at my kids, Maggie." Jackson warned, keeping his voice cool and even.

Maggie turned to him, her eyes wide and brilliant as though her mind were bordering at the edge of the map and about to swan dive over it. "You know, I've been following your career for years!" she said coming over to kneel at the side of the bed, putting herself at eye level with him. "I'm your biggest fan. Getting Senator Weinstein's granddaughter to shoot him seven times simply by using your power of persuasion…it was awe inspiring."

"So, you're Clyde's partner." Jackson said, shaking his head. "Little young aren't you?"

"Old enough."

"Here I thought Clyde had better taste."

"Now, don't be mean, Jackson." Maggie said, straightening and walking towards his kids. "Or I'll have to be mean."

"Get away from my kids." Jackson demanded, not even realizing that he was really in no position to be making demands.

"You're right!" Maggie chirped, "We'd much more enjoy the time alone, I think. Okay, kiddies, into the bathroom."

Luhki kept her arms draped around her little sister as she looked back and forth between her babysitter and her father. Then, she turned her little chin up at the woman in blatant defiance. "No." She said. She looked so much like Lisa at that moment that it almost made Jackson smile.

Maggie looked bug eyed at the comment. "What did you say?"

"I…I…I wanna stay with my daddy." Luhki stated, looking down at her feet and away from Maggie's glaring eyes.

Maggie tucked her handgun into the back of her waistband and grabbed Luhki by the arm, a little harder than was necessary to move a five year old, and dragged her into the bathroom. Mariah screamed as her big sister was torn away from her and thrown into the bathroom.

"Hey!" Jackson bellowed, fighting against his restraints.

Maggie stormed back over and snatched Mariah from her feet and shoved her into the bathroom with Luhki. Jack Jr. was screaming as well from his play pen and it wasn't long before Maggie had grabbed the two year old and put him down in the empty bathtub before she slammed the door closed on the three crying children, blocking out the noise of their sobs. Jackson tried to rip his hands out of the handcuffs but to no avail. Maggie flashed him a brilliant smile as she sauntered back over to the bed. "Alone at last."

"If you hurt so much as a hair on one of my kids' heads, I swear to God I will rip your jaw off of your face and feed it to the dog." Jackson seethed.

"You don't have a dog." Maggie countered without losing her smile.

"I'm buying Lisa one for Christmas."

"Oh Lord," Maggie sighed, rolling her eyes and plopping down beside him on the edge of the bed, "Do we have to talk about her? She's just too…_common _for someone like you."

Jackson wanted to smack the grin off of her face. His lips pressed together in concentration and he tugged yet again on the handcuffs that held him to the bed. In his eyes, Lisa was anything but common and he refused to sit idly by and let her be insulted by the likes of a wannabe assassin. She suddenly swung one leg over to the other side of him so that she was sitting on top of him, straddling his hips.

"You need someone who understands you. Someone…who shares in the enjoyment of your job." She leaned forward, exposing him to her cleavage and talking so that her lips were brushing against his face every time they moved. "Someone who can appreciate the art of what you do."

"You mean someone like you?" Jackson snorted.

"You know," Maggie went on as if she hadn't noticed the mockery in his tone or the murder blazing in his eyes, "I admire your work. The only reason I even took this gig with Clyde was because he said that I would get to meet you." She slid her hand down, letting the tips of her fingers knead at his chest. "I think that we could do really great jobs together."

"Don't touch me." Jackson hissed, attempting to throw her off of him but unable to do so.

Maggie's eyes lit up. "Don't fight me, Jackson." Maggie said as she began to rotate her hips and grind herself down on his pelvis, searching for any hint of arousal and finding none. However, she would not be deterred. "Don't you see? We shouldn't be fighting each other. We should be helping each other."

Jackson looked up at his hands, refusing to give Maggie the satisfaction of having him looking at her. He would have liked nothing more than to throw her down to the floor and beat her to death with a baseball bat. Threatening his family was not acceptable. The fact that she was touching was unacceptable. The entire situation at hand was pretty much unacceptable.

"Get your hands off my husband, bitch!"

Jackson broke into a full fledged grin as he turned and looked to see his gorgeous Lisa standing there in all her glory. She was dripping wet from head to toe, covered in mud and what appeared to be hey, her hair was matted to her head, and she was aiming the 9mm at Maggie's head.

"What if I don't want to?" Maggie said, running one hand over Jackson's hair, though he twisted his head to get away from her touch.

"Then I shoot you in the head." Lisa answered.

Maggie threw back her head and laughed from deep in her stomach, "You think you can stand there and threaten me with my own gun?"

"You think I'm gonna let you rape my husband in my own house?" Lisa countered, stepping forward.

Jackson wanted to shake his head. Once again, people were underestimating Lisa. It seemed that no matter how many guys she managed to kill, they were never going to understand just how dangerous she really was. True, when had first began watching her, he thought that she was an ordinary workaholic type of woman who would be easy to scare, easy to control. She had surprised him with her resilience. He had never doubted her again, but these other idiots apparently didn't learn so well. Mellmott had mistaken her for a weak little woman, Larsard had thought her to be easy pickings, and now Maggie thought that she would be able to intimidate her. Fools.

"This is what the great Jackson Rippner wants? This common little mouse of a girl! I can't believe it." Maggie said.

Jackson winced. That wasn't going to go over well with Lisa.

"Mouse?" Lisa asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Rape your husband in you own house, huh?" Maggie went on, stroking Jackson's cheek. Suddenly, she leaned down and ran her tongue along his face then looked back up at Lisa with a twisted grin on her face. "How do you plan to stop me?"

Without even thinking about it, Lisa squeezed the trigger. Actually, in the sudden rage at seeing Maggie touch lick Jackson, she had pulled the trigger. The gun had jerked and instead of hitting Maggie between the eyes, she had hit her in the shoulder. The force was enough to throw her off of Jackson though, so Lisa chalked that up to a point for her.

"You bitch!" Maggie screamed from the other side of the bed, her hand clutched to her now bleeding shoulder.

Lisa trotted over to the edge of the bed and with one hand, held the gun fixed on the other side of the bed in case Maggie should expose herself. With her other hand, she untied one of Jackson's ankles. Her plan was to get Jackson untied and to let him deal with Maggie. She may have been more than embodied with impulse to survive and protect her young, but she lacked in the killer instinct that Jackson possessed. She hurried up to the head of the bed and jerked open the drawer of the nightstand. After rummaging through it as quickly as she could, she found the keys to the handcuffs were missing. Her gaze snapped to Jackson, who shrugged as best he could, then she looked to the other side of the bed. Lisa swallowed the lump in her throat and slowly made her way around the foot of the bed, but when she reached the other side, there was no one there.

"Shit!" she said.

"Lisa!" Jackson's voice rang out just as a bullet flew past Lisa's head and shattered her beloved picture window.

Lisa turned and saw Maggie standing with her gun poised to fire again. She had a swath of material tied around the wound in her upper arm, soaking up the blood. She squeezed the trigger again and Lisa dropped to her knees, tucking her chin to her chest to keep her head as low as possible. She saw that the corner of the bed skirt had been torn off, which was what Maggie had tied around her arm.

"You slut!" Lisa screamed, "That's Egyptian cotton!" With that, she came back up, just in time to see a flash of blonde hair as Maggie made her way to the bathroom.

"Leese, the kids!" Jackson exclaimed.

Lisa jumped to her feet and shot toward the hallway of the bathroom just as the bathroom door flew open to reveal Maggie standing there, one hand clamped around Luhki's arm and the other pressing the barrel of her gun to Luhki's temple. Maggie was staring at her with bright beaming eyes that were wide and watery and wild. She looked like she had lost whatever mind she had had. "Mrs. Rippner!" she exclaimed, her voice high and peppy, "I've been meaning to talk to you about my salary."

"Has all that bleach you put in your hair seeped through to your brain?" Lisa hissed, "Let my babies go or I will shoot you between the eyes."

"If you so much as twitch an eyelid, little Luhki won't be livin' up to her namesake for very long." Maggie retorted, visibly pressing the gun harder against the small child's head.

"What is this, psycho teens take Miami? Is Charlie the video store clerk gonna come waltzing in with an AK in a second?" Lisa said, trying her best to distract Maggie. It was one of Jackson's strategies; throw her off balance and attack when she's weak. If she could get her attention on something else, _anything _else, she could tear her apart.

"Not unless he's managed to reattach his head to his neck." Maggie spat.

"So, you killed Charlie?"

"I just wanted the bike."

"Get away from my kids."

Maggie's face suddenly contorted into stone seriousness, "You're not good enough for him." As soon as the words had left her mouth, the wolverine smile was back on her face. But, she had blocked out the other two kid's cries so well, that she didn't even notice it when Mariah stopped.

It's amazing how perceptive children are when it comes to their parents, particularly their mothers. The three year old didn't understand what was going on, but she could tell that her mother and her older sister were scared and it was Maggie's fault. She was probably gonna get in trouble in the end, but she didn't care. Maybe her momma would stop being scared if she had something else to think about. So, little Mariah wiped her nose with her hand and crept over to Maggie's side. Then, without hesitation, she chomped her little razor sharp teeth down through one of the holes in Maggie's jeans. She bit down so hard that she drew blood.

Maggie shrieked and kicked the little girl away from her into the wall. Lisa took advantage of the distraction and rushed the younger woman. She didn't want to fire her gun and risk hitting one of her kids, so she grabbed hold of the wrist of the hand that held the gun and pointed it up at the ceiling, wincing as it went off. Luhki got out from in between the two women as they wrestled and joined her younger sister at the wall.

Maggie slammed Lisa into the sink, drawing a grunt of pain from her. Lisa brought up her knee hard between Maggie's legs. Don't listen to what they say, just because women don't have balls, it still hurts like hell. Then, taking a cue from Jackson, she head butted Maggie right between the eyes. Apparently, being able to head butt somebody was a talent that she didn't have, because it affected her just as much as it affected Maggie. She was always telling Jackson that he was thick headed. Both women fell and crashed onto the edge of the bathtub. Lisa hit shoulder first and thought that surely she had knocked it out of the socket as she somersaulted into the actual tub as Jack Jr. scampered out of the way. Maggie, on the other hand, hit the back of her head and her body went immediately limp as she lost consciousness on top of Lisa. Lisa groaned and tried to right herself in the narrow confines of the porcelain tub, shoving the dead weight of the babysitter off of her when she spotted the handcuff keys lying on the floor near Luhki's feet. They must have fallen out of Maggie's pocket in the midst of their struggling. The blonde groaned and moved slightly. She wasn't that far out of it. Lisa had to act fast. She hoisted herself out of the bathtub, accidentally turning the faucet on as she did so. She didn't bother to turn the water off and left Maggie in the tub in hopes that the bitch would just drown. Quickly, she palmed the keys as she scooped Jack Jr. out of the bathtub and ushered the girls out the door at the same time she kicked both guns through the doorway. Maggie stirred again as Lisa pulled the door to. She set Jack Jr. on his feet and grabbed a pair of dirty pantyhose from the floor. She tied one end to the doorknob and the other end a coat rack that was mounted to the wall, stretching them as tight as they would go. They hose wouldn't hold long, but they would slow her down when she woke up. She snatched the handguns from the floor and turned to her children.

"Okay, babies," she said, "Luhki, take Jack Jr. and Mariah to your room. Lock yourselves in the closet and don't come out for anyone unless it's me or daddy. No one, do you understand?"

Tears streaming down her face, Luhki nodded.

Lisa nodded along with her, "Yes. Okay." She sniffled, fighting back the tears that were building. She heard Maggie begin to fight with the bathroom door and knew that she needed to wrap things up. She kissed each of them on the head and then stood and looked away from them. She couldn't watch them leave the room. She didn't know why, she just couldn't. "Go."

She took two breaths to compose herself, then rushed to the bedside back to Jackson. He didn't look pleased. "It's about time." He snapped.

Lisa glared at him as a single tear slid down her cheek and his expression softened considerably. "Untie me." He said gently.

Lisa set the guns down on the nightstand and struggled to unlock Jackson's wrist, but her hands were shaking so badly. Maggie's pounding on the door seemed to be growing louder and Lisa couldn't seem to make herself focus. She finally got the one wrist undone and lean across him to get to the other one. The thumping on the door suddenly turned into the sound of splintering wood and not two seconds later, Maggie flew at Lisa like a football player and tackled her. The women went tumbling over the edge of the bed, sending the keys flying through the air where they finally came to rest by the wall. Maggie charge Lisa, but Lisa threw her foot up and caught Maggie in the stomach to send her flipping over her head. Maggie grabbed Lisa by the arm and dragged her across the floor to her. Lisa swung her arm and hit Maggie across the side of the head at the same time Maggie managed to get two handfuls of Lisa's hair and slam her head into the side of Jackson's bureau.

Meanwhile, Jackson had half of his body off the bed and was willing his arm to stretch in length of about three inches so he could reach the damn keys to the handcuffs.

Maggie and Lisa were back on their feet again. Maggie still had a hold of Lisa's hair and Lisa had both fists tangled in the material of Maggie's tee shirt. Maggie rammed Lisa back into the bureau and Lisa countered by shoving Maggie into the wall. Jackson looked on helplessly. He couldn't help but think about how this scene was most men's fantasy come true and all he could think about was ripping that little bitch away from his wife and blowing her brains out. Wait a second!

His head snapped around to the other side of the bed where he spotted the two handguns laying on the nightstand, completely undisturbed and completely within his reach. He scooted back up onto the bed and then over to the other side, grabbing the 9mm and swinging it across his body to take aim.

"Lisa!" he called.

Lisa looked over her shoulder, tugged herself out of Maggie's grasp and dove to the floor. Maggie didn't even notice that Jackson had the gun until after he had fired. Blood exploded from her side and the impact sent her smashing back against the wall. Her face held a sort of wide eyed shock as she slowly slid down the wall to the floor. Lisa peered up at Jackson from the floor, then leapt to her feet and flew at him. As soon as she landed on top of him, she attacked his mouth with her own.

"Who says you're a lousy shot?" she said breathlessly.

"Leese, babe," Jackson said, licking his lips and looking at her with a dark smoldering look, "there's something I really want you to do for me."

"Anything." Lisa said.

Jackson grinned but didn't say anything. Instead, Lisa's attention was drawn to a clinking sound. She looked up and saw Jackson shaking his still handcuffed wrist back and forth.

"Oh, right!" Lisa exclaimed, climbing off of him and grabbing the keys from the floor.

She got him uncuffed in no time and as soon as his hand was free, both of his arms were around her. Lisa threw her own arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly against her. She just needed to be closer to him.

Then, as if from nowhere, Davey, soaked to the bone, came bumbling through the bedroom door. His hair was caked to his forehead and releasing a steady stream of water down his face. His hands were over his face and he seemed to be rubbing his eyes vigorously. "Lisa, couldn't leave without say…well…I'm sorry. That was so wrong of me." His hands dropped and he saw Jackson, but it was too late. The words were out of his mouth. "I shouldn't have kissed you."

Lisa felt Jackson's body tense under her touch and she instinctively tightened her grasp on his shoulders in preparation to hold him back.

"What?" Jackson growled, his eyes narrowing as his gaze zoomed in on his target: Davey.

But, Jackson wasn't going to get his shot at Davey just yet, because at that exact moment, a .38 snub nose revolver came into view, the barrel resting right at Davey's temple. Along with the gun, Clyde came gliding into the room.

**Author's Note: **Be sure to let me know what you think! Am I slipping up anywhere?


	9. Chapter Eight: Dealing With Clyde

**Author's Note: **Sorry for the long delay. Finals and all that. On the brighter side, we are nearing the end of our story. Thanks for the reviews, your support, and your patience! I really appreciate it. I'll stop blabbing now and let you read! Let me know what you think!

**Chapter Eight: Dealing With Clyde**

Jackson's eyes went from Davey's face to Clyde's. "Kill him." He said, letting his hand snake its way discreetly down to his ankle to release from the one remaining tie.

Lisa watched poor Davey's dark blue eyes widen in a combination of shock at what Jackson had just said and fear at the fact that Clyde might just do it.

"I don't want him." Clyde said. There were chunks of dried blood hanging from his face just below his ear. Lisa smiled with a slight sensation of pride blooming inside her at the sight of the wound. "I want that bitch of a wife you got."

The smile faded. Asshole.

Jackson's grip on Lisa's waist tightened. "Not gonna happen."

"So, you don't care if I do away with this little prick?" Clyde said, nudging Davey's temple with the barrel of the gun.

"Either you do it or I do later, he's dead either way." Jackson announced.

It was about then, Lisa, as she was fighting the urge to drop her head into her hands and groan, she watched Davey's eyes roll back in his head and he fainted dead away onto her carpet. Everything seemed to stop for a moment as everyone's eyes followed him to the floor. "Pussy." Jackson and Clyde said at once.

And just like that, the time out was over and Clyde lunged onto the bed for Lisa. Jackson held out his arms from around either side of Lisa catching Clyde by the forearms and Lisa brought her hands up twisting them into the material of Clyde's shirt. The three of them toppled over the edge of the bed to the floor with Lisa sandwiched in between the two men. In the midst of the fall, Lisa watched the 9mm fly out of Jackson's grip and slide across the floor and underneath Jackson's bureau. Jackson started to slam Clyde's hand against the corner of the windowsill until the gun flew out of his hand and out the broken window. It was that point that the two men began trying to kill each other with their bare hands. Lisa, who was still pressed between the two of them, was just trying her best to keep breathing when she spotted something shimmering under the bed. A knife! It was her carving knife! She stretched out her arm just as the two men shifted their weight and rolled. With a frustrated growl, Lisa shoved her hand to Clyde's side and twisted a handful of his flesh in her fingers. Clyde grunted in pain and shifted his weight again, causing them to roll back. Lisa wiggled her upper body out from between them until she was under the bed enough to reach where the knife had been shoved halfway under. She grabbed the knife and swiftly dragged the blade over Clyde's bicep, who then howled and sprang away from her and her husband.

Lisa thrust the knife into Jackson's capable hands and rolled off of him, allowing him to get to his feet. The two men then began to size each other up and circle one another in a predatory prowess.

"Come on, Rippner." Clyde said, "Don't make me kill you. It'll really piss off you know who."

"You should've thought of that before you came after my family."

Lisa sank back into the corner. She was trapped there. The only way out was across the bed and that would give Clyde a clear path to her. No. It was better to stay in the corner and keep Jackson between herself and Clyde. He was her shield; her own knight in shining Armani so to speak. Jackson lunged for Clyde, but Clyde caught him by the wrist and spun him around. He pulled Jackson back against him, almost in the same fashion that Jackson had done to Lisa a million times. He closed his hand over the fist that held the knife so Jackson couldn't drop it. Then he shoved Jackson toward Lisa.

"This makes it more fun!" Clyde growled in Jackson's ear, "Look into your pretty little wife's eyes as _you _stab her in the throat."

Lisa screamed and caught Jackson by the forearms, using all of her strength to keep him away. Jackson was struggling against Clyde and trying to hold his arms back and the weapon away from Lisa. The tip of the knife was biting into the soft flesh of her neck and Clyde had used Jackson to pin her body to the wall so she couldn't wiggle away. A tear slid down her cheek as she looked into Jackson's pretty blue eyes. His brows were drawn together as he looked back at her, the strain and fear evident in those deep pools of his eyes. It was funny. She couldn't remember ever having seen him afraid and now he was afraid that he was going to kill her.

"Lisa…" he said as the knife sank deeper.

"I love you." Lisa said whispered and closed her eyes.

And just like that, she heard the solid _thwap _as Jackson threw his head back and connected with Clyde's nose. Lisa felt the instant relief of pressure as both men stumbled back and away from her. She opened her eyes and released a deep breath that had been trapped in her lungs. As the two men again wrestled each other to the floor, Lisa sprang up onto the bed, scuffling across it until she reached the nightstand, where she immediately took hold of the remaining 9mm and swung around taking aim at the floor where her husband and his assailant were rolling around. They were tossing and turning so much that she couldn't get a clear shot. They rolled again and banged into Jackson's bureau, causing a heavy antique silver picture frame containing a picture of her and Jackson on their wedding day to fall off. It struck Jackson on the top of the head. His actions seized for a moment as he tried to shake the blow off, but instead he soon collapsed to the floor completely motionless.

Lisa felt as though her throat had closed up entirely as she watched her husband's body go limp. Her dropped open and she spaced out for a moment, her eyes locking on Jackson's unconscious form. She was so focused on Jackson that she didn't notice Clyde jumping to his feet until he was reaching for her. She blinked herself back into reality and squeezed the trigger, but Clyde already had a hold of her wrist and pushed it back so that the bullet hurtled into the ceiling. With one fluid movement, he pulled the gun out of her hand, tucked it into the back of his waistband, and dragged her off of the bed. Lisa went to punch him in the jaw with her free hand, but Clyde caught that wrist as well.

"Let me go!" Lisa screamed.

"Shh," Clyde cooed as though he were talking to an intimate lover, "Can you hear that?"

Lisa couldn't hear anything her heart was pounding so hard. Then, the sound of running water flooded her ears. Clyde was smiling at her like a shark. "That is a beautiful sound."

Before she knew it, Clyde had spun Lisa around in his arms so that her back was pressed tightly against his chest. He took both of her wrists in one hand and pinned them to her own chest and tangled his other fist into the back of her hair. All of her struggling was apparently futile, because with all her kicking and screaming, Clyde managed to drag her toward the bathroom with seemingly little effort. He kicked open the bathroom door and the sight brought out a fresh burst of force from Lisa. She jerked her head back, aiming for Clyde's face, which he dodged with ease and tightened his hold on her. The bathtub was overflowing, water cascading down the sides to the floor. Their feet splashed into at least an inch of water as they sloshed into the bathroom. Lisa twisted and writhed in attempt to escape from Clyde's grasp, but he merely chuckled in her ear and carried her over to the tub. It took him about seven seconds to force her down into the tub of ice cold water and get her completely submerged.

When the brain is deprived of oxygen, the mind panics. Lisa had gone into hysterics. She wasn't thinking clearly. All that was going was her survival instinct as she clawed at Clyde's wrists and lower arms. She went for his face but he had her held down so she couldn't quite reach. The water was so cold, it felt like a million little pin pricks all over her skin. She was staring up through the water at Clyde's distorted face and she was unable to stop the thought from entering her mind. She was about to die. She had imagined herself dying a thousand different ways, and since she had married Jackson, more than a few of those ways involved an assassin, but…being drowned in her own bathtub? Come on!

Suddenly, the pressure on her throat was gone. She was above the water, both her hands gripping either side of the tub, coughing and hacking as her lungs filled with air and her vision started to clear. She shivered involuntarily as she looked over and saw that Jackson had ripped Clyde away from her and had him pinned against the wall, fighting to bury the blade of her favorite kitchen knife into his chest. With a shuddering breath, Lisa hoisted herself to her feet in the tub.

"Don't go too far, sweetheart." Clyde said without looking away from Jackson, "I'm not through with you, yet."

"Oh, yes you are." Jackson said and head butted him.

Clyde let out a yelp, but didn't let the blow faze him. The two men fell out through the bathroom door back into the bedroom. Lisa leapt from the tub, the fuzzy water soaked rug squishing as her feet hit it. When she hit the tile, a large pool of water had already formed from the overflowing tub and her feet slipped and flew out from under her. She landed on her tailbone with a grimace. The sound of something breaking got her focus back and she hopped to her feet and charged into the bedroom. When she got through the small hallway, she saw that Clyde had Jackson pinned down on the bed. He had turned the knife on him and was slowly overpowering Jackson, who had his arms braced in front of himself for protection. Lisa darted past the bed and grabbed her wedding picture from the floor, then turned and watched in horror as Clyde managed to stab Jackson in the upped shoulder. Jackson's scream was matched by her own as she swung the picture frame hard and connected with the side of Clyde's head. Clyde fell away from Jackson and over the footboard of the bed. Breathing hard, Lisa watched as Jackson pulled the knife from his shoulder with a wince and pushed his self from the bed. He walked over to Clyde and grabbed a handful of his hair. He paused briefly and met his wife's steady gaze. "Close your eyes, Leese."

Lisa obeyed. But as soon as her lids dropped, she remembered Lasard and what Jackson had done to him without even flinching. He had gutted the man with no regard for her presence and what the sight would forever do to her psyche. Being a husband and a father had changed him in very few ways, but the ways that it had changed him were significant. He didn't only want to protect her life now, he wanted to shield her from certain things. He knew that Lisa was fully capable of dealing with what he did, but he didn't want her to have to deal with it. If it was possible to avoid exposing her to the gory details, he would go to any lengths to see that it was done. When she opened her eyes again, Jackson was wiping his knife of on Clyde's pants and Clyde was laying at the foot of her bed, his throat slit open revealing layers of tissue and artery and pooling blood onto her white carpet. Lisa frowned, "You've ruined my carpet."

Jackson looked up at her with a grin, "I'll buy you a new one."

Just then, Lisa heard a slight groan and looked down to see Davey stirring into consciousness at her feet. Normally, people are relieved when people regain consciousness, but in this case, Lisa knew that Davey stood a better chance of living if he didn't wake up. She was just about to kick him in the head to knock him back out, when she saw that Jackson had already noticed. His bright blue eyes had narrowed into dangerous slits as they honed in on Davey's rising form.

"Uh-oh." Lisa said aloud to herself. Her eyes went to Jackson's right hand which had visibly tightened around the handle of her kitchen knife. "Jackson." She said.

"So…" Jackson said, his voice turning sing-song.

Davey shook his head side to side, touched one hand to it and then looked up and around the room, his eyes settling momentarily on Lisa. He smiled. Then he saw Jackson. And the large knife in his hands.

"You kissed my wife?" Jackson seethed, closing the distance that separated them.

Lisa moved quickly, stepping in between her husband and her young trainee. "Jackson, remember when we talked about being rational?"

"That conversation does not apply to men who try to hurt, kill, or kiss my wife." Jackson countered.

Davey had climbed unsteadily to his feet and was cowering behind Lisa. Jackson grabbed Lisa by the elbow and pulled her past him, lunging for Davey. Lisa countered quickly, swinging herself around and jumping on Jackson's back. "Jackson! You cannot kill him!"

"You know better than that, Leese." Jackson said, trying to pull Lisa off of his back. "I can do anything I put my mind to."

"Jackson!" Lisa yelped as he flung her from his back to the bed. She bounced to the other side and rushed for the bedroom door, leaving Davey on his own with Jackson. She ran for the hallway closet and ripped it open. Amongst the cascade of junk the toppled from inside, she caught her trusty field hockey mallet and then ran back for the bedroom. By the time she got back into the room, Jackson had Davey on the floor and had drawn blood from him.

"Jackson." Lisa said ever so sweetly.

Jackson looked over at his wife, locking eyes with her just before she whacked him across the face with her mallet. He fell over, freeing Davey to jump to his feet. Jackson's face snapped back toward Lisa as he rubbed a hand over his jaw.

"Davey, run away right now." Lisa said keeping her voice calm and controlled. Davey didn't need to be told twice. In the blink of an eye, he was out the door and Lisa had stepped in front of it to guard his escape. Jackson climbed steadily to his feet.

"Move, Leese."

"Not gonna happen."

"So, we're gonna do this now?"

"Do you see any way around it?"

Jackson quirked a crooked smile and shook his head, just before he lunged for her. He grabbed the mallet with both hands and spun her around, causing both of them to lose their balance and topple onto the bed. As soon as they hit the mattress, each of them began fighting for the top position. Jackson managed to secure his place on top of his wife, but it wasn't for long. Lisa wrapped both of her legs around Jackson's waist and twisted him beneath her and used the strength of her lower body to hold him in position. One thing she had always been proud of was her lower body strength, hell, she had given birth to three children from down there! She used all of her weight to shove the mallet down long ways onto Jackson's throat and pin him down to the mattress. Jackson stared up at her with what could very well have been pride beaming from his crystal blue eyes. He tried to move his body, but Lisa just tightened her thighs around him.

"Jackson," she whispered, "don't make me do this."

Jackson smiled his sexy little smile up at her. "Fine, Leese, you win. I won't kill the little shit…tonight, anyway."

Lisa chuckled in spite of herself. "That's all I can ask."

She pulled the mallet away and released her hold on his waist, pushing herself to her feet. Jackson was soon also on his feet, rubbing a hand over his face. "Nice shot, by the way. Caught me right in the jaw."

"I'm so sorry, baby." Lisa laughed, leaning forward and giving him a light kiss on the cheek. "I promise, I'll make it all better tonight."

"Hey, Jackson." A light airy voice said, drawing both of their attention to the corner of the room where Maggie stood hold her side with one hand and the 9mm from under the bureau in the other. The wolverine smile was back on her face as she said, "You really are a lousy shot." With that, she fired the gun.

Time seemed to switch into slow motion and Lisa felt as though she could see the bullet flying through the air. She heard the raspy grunt as the hunk of metal slammed into Jackson's chest. All the breath seemed to leave his body as he looked to Lisa just before he clasped a hand to the wound and fell back into the wall and slid down it to the floor. Then, Lisa's head was filled with this horrible high pitched shrieking noise, which she soon came to realize was her own screaming.

Still clutching the mallet, she leapt at Maggie. Maggie turned and swung the gun around to aim it at Lisa. Too slow. Lisa slapped the gun out of the blonde's hand with the end of the mallet, and on the return swing hit her solidly in the face. Maggie stumbled backward and fell on her rear end. Lisa delivered a swift kick to her face, knocking her to her back. It was then that she lost complete control. She began screaming once again as she brought the mallet down onto Maggie's head repeatedly. Over and over and over again, she beat her in the skull with as much strength as she could, sending little bits of flesh, blood, and tissue all over the carpet, the walls, and Lisa herself. There was no stopping her. Maggie had since quit moving considering her head was now nothing more than a squishy pile of soft tissue, but that didn't keep Lisa from beating on it. Only when the mallet broke in half did she finally stop. All the strength seemed to drain out of her all at once and she sank to her knees in a heap of choking sobs. She hurled the broken piece of wood she still had in her hand into the wall before turning away from Maggie's body. Unable to stand, she began crawling to where Jackson lay motionless on the floor. She pulled his head into her lap and put her own hand to the wound in his chest. There was still warm blood oozing from it and she felt a fresh wave of anguish overtake her. She crushed her Jackson to her and twisted her fingers into his soft silky hair.

"Jackson." she cried out, though it left her lips no louder that a whisper, "Jackson, baby, wake up. Please wake up. I can't do this without you. Come on baby, open your eyes. Open your eyes, damn you. Damn you, open your eyes. Jackson..."

**Author's Note: **Please, please, please, let me know your opinions! I live for feedback!


	10. Chapter Nine: Aftermath

7

**Author's Note: **Thanks so much to everyone for all the reviews! I hope you enjoy this chapter, as well. I don't really have anything else to say at the moment other than…hope you like it. Oh! And…Imshi…Wow! My eyes! With a spork!Maybe a little harsh:)

**Chapter Nine: Aftermath**

Lisa sat there for about two minutes, though it felt like so much longer, just cradling Jackson's head in her arms. She could feel his pulse getting slower, but she didn't know what to do. She couldn't call 911, they would send police and they would ask way too many questions, and she would go to jail and Jackson would either die or go to jail, and her babies, her precious babies, would be taken away from her. Then, it hit her…like a lightening bolt from out of nowhere. She reached down and fumbled through Jackson's pants pocket until she pulled out his cell phone. She silently thanked God that he never forgot to grab his cell phone; never went anywhere without it…even though she always complained about it at restaurants. She scanned through his contacts until the very end. She almost glanced right over the listing, but something about it caught her eye. _Wung Chui's_. Jackson hated Chinese food. Without hesitating, she hit send. The phone rang twice before a deep voice responded on the other end.

"_Code in_." it said.

"I don't know the code." Lisa sobbed.

"_Have a nice day_."

"No, wait! Please…"

"_How did you get this number_?"

"I'm Jackson Rippner's wife. I don't know his code. Please, he's been shot and I don't know what to do. I can't…I can't call…I don't know what to do. Please, help me."

"_Calm down, ma'am_." The man on the other end said, "_I need you to verify that you are in fact Mr. Rippner's wife."_

"How can I do that?"

"_Mr. Rippner has a safety question for such an occurrence. What did you drink with him in the airport bar_?"

Lisa almost smiled at the memory, but the tears streaming from her eyes choked her and her voice cracked, "A baybreeze."

"_Location_?"

"We're at our house. Uh, 903…"

"_We know the address, Mrs. Rippner. A clean up crew will be there shortly_."

"Thank you, so much." Lisa said, but the line had already gone dead. She dropped the cell phone and snuggled a little closer to Jackson. Jackson had a safety question just in case something like this should ever happen. She should have known. That was just the way he was; always cover things from all angles; never be without a plan. That was her Jackson. She thought about all this as she sat there stroking his hair. Jackson had always had faith that if anything should ever happen to him, that Lisa would be able to take care of herself. "Please be okay, baby. I need you."

Then, she looked over and saw Maggie's body…and her face. Had she really done that? She couldn't remember anything. She never would have thought herself capable of something so…so…horrifying. Then she looked back at Jackson…her Jackson…her husband and the father of her children and the bleeding hole in the middle of his chest and a consuming rage burned violently in the pit of her stomach. He was her life, her breath, her world…when it came to him and her kids…she was capable of anything. Tonight, she had found that out. When Maggie had shot him, it must have sent her over the edge. It had definitely sent her to a place that she had never been to before. So much for stress management.

A few moments later, there were several men in dark black suits pouring into her room. Terrified, Lisa scrambled away from Jackson in search of something to defend herself with.

"Mrs. Rippner?" one of the men asked.

Lisa couldn't speak but managed to muster a nod.

"Don't worry, ma'am," he said, "We'll take care of everything."

Suddenly, two of the men had put Jackson up on a stretcher and were wheeling him out of the room. Lisa felt her heart trying to beat its way out of her chest to go with him. She hopped to her feet and tried to run after them, but the man who had spoken to her caught her by the arms.

"I'm sorry, ma'am." He said.

"Why can't I go with him?" she asked.

The man just looked at her for a second before going to help two other men to bag up Clyde's body. It was shocking to her how much they all looked alike…like they were all clones of the same man almost. All tall and broad with light brownish hair cropped close to their heads. Two more were bagging up Maggie's body and two other's were pouring bleach onto her beautiful carpet and another was scrubbing at the walls. Lisa didn't know how she was supposed to react to all of this. She hugged her arms around herself and leaned back against the wall. Flashes of what she had done to Maggie kept flooding through her mind and she wanted to throw up. She had a feeling that those images would haunt her for the rest of her life. Fresh tears sprang up in her eyes and she wiped them away with the tips of her fingers. That was when she noticed the blood splattered across her. Some of it was Jackson's, but most of it was Maggie's. She started furiously wiping at her arms trying to get it off of her, but her hands were completely covered and all she succeeded in doing was smearing more blood across her forearms. Shaking, she wiped her palms over the material of the very expensive black dress that Cynthia had brought back to her from New York and looked around her. She didn't understand how these men did what they did. They were going about cleaning everything up as though she didn't exist…as though what they were seeing was completely normal. When she looked around, it felt like she was trapped in some nightmare that she couldn't escape. Even with what she had gotten used to seeing being married to Jackson, this was extreme. She desperately wanted to be able to blink and make it all go back to the way that it yesterday.

Then, the reality set in. Jackson might die. Jackson might already be dead. Her knees buckled and she had to use the wall for support just to remain on her feet. Jackson couldn't die. He was…well…he was Jackson. He was untouchable. She could feel her stomach beginning to wretch. She needed to get into the bathroom, but there were three guys in it hosing it down. She was going to vomit, it was going to happen, she just didn't know where. In desperation, she grabbed the small trash can they kept by the nightstand and sank to her knees on the ground, spewing what little there was in her stomach to release. None of the men cleaning her house even looked up to see what was going on, not one of them. Lisa finished emptying the little bit of amino acids remaining in her stomach, then sat back on her heels and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She just wanted this night to end. She wanted these men out of her house, she wanted Jackson to come walking through the door with that cocky little smirk on his face, and her children to…oh, God…the kids!

No sooner had the thought run through her head than she heard a loud high pitched squeal coming from beneath her. She made a break for the door. One of the 'clean up crew' moved to step in her way, but she knocked him to the side and was out the door and down the stairs in the blink of an eye. She charged through the downstairs hallway into her kids' room. There were three more men in there. All the same nondescript build as the men upstairs in her own bedroom. Luhki was squealing and batting one of the men's hands away as he tried to reach for her and her younger siblings. Lisa flew across the room and shouldered the man backwards.

"Stay away from my kids!" she demanded, taking position in front of Luhki, Mariah, and Jack Jr. to shield them from the suited men. She needed to be strong right now…for them. "They are not a part of this."

The only man who had spoken to her appeared in the doorway, apparently slightly out of breath from tearing through the house after her. "Mrs. Rippner?"

Lisa looked at him, but pivoted her stance so that she could keep her eyes trained on the other men in the room, as well. Another little tidbit Jackson had ingrained in her. She didn't have anything to use as a weapon, but she wasn't going to let these men traumatize her children any further. "No!" Lisa said, the last of her strength melting away as she was reduced to yet more tears. So much for being strong for her kids' sake. "No, no. I don't care what you have to say. We have been through _enough_!"

"Mommy! Mommy, what's wrong?" Luhki sobbed quietly behind her. The little girl didn't know what was going on, but she knew that something was bothering her mommy.

The man looked over and Luhki's tearstained face. Lisa could have sworn she saw something along the same lines as compassion flash across his eyes as he looked into the faces of her children. He looked back to Lisa, physically straightened and ran a hand down his tie, flattening it to his chest. "Mrs. Rippner, please collect your children and come with me."

Lisa leaned down and lifted Jack Jr. onto her hip and with one free hand, herded Mariah and Luhki in front of her so that she could keep her eyes on them as they were led down the hall to the dining room.

"Mrs. Rippner, you and your family should wait in here until we're done sweeping the house." The man said gently, his eyes looking over the faces of her children.

Lisa didn't think she had it in her to speak anymore, so she just nodded her head and sat down at the dining room table, with Jack Jr. in her lap. Luhki and Mariah immediately attached themselves to her legs. They didn't no what was happening in their home, but they were smart enough to know that there were a whole lot of strangers there and they needed to be close to their mother. Just as the man turned to go, Lisa found her voice. "Wait!" She called.

The man paused and turned back toward her.

"Is my husband going to be okay?" she asked.

The man looked from Lisa's face to Luhki's, then Mariah's, then back to Lisa's. Then, he turned and walked away without saying anything. Lisa felt as though her heart had dropped into her stomach as she watched him disappear back down the hall. She unconsciously hugged her son tighter against her.

Luhki looked up at her with big round green eyes, "Mommy, where's daddy?"

"Oh, baby," Lisa said, searching for the right words, "daddy got a booboo and had to go see the doctor."

"Is he okay?" Mariah chirped, her own eyes welling up with tears.

"I'm sure he will be, sweetheart."

But her children had inherited their intuition from their parents and they could tell that things weren't quite right. Even Jack Jr. had started bawling, repeating the word "Dah-dee!" over and over.

Lisa stroked the little boy's head as he clung to her neck as though his life depended on it. She shushed him quietly, rocking him back and forth as Mariah sat down in the floor and wrapped her tiny little arms around Lisa's ankles and Luhki lay her head in her mother's lap. Eventually, Jack Jr. gave in to sleep, as did Mariah, but Luhki continued to sit there with her mother, both of them lost in their own minds.

Lisa looked down at her eldest child and couldn't help but think how mature she seemed all of the sudden. Luhki was only five, but somehow at that moment she struck Lisa as being so much older. She had been through so much and apparently not just today, but that whole thing with Rick. Bastard. Lisa didn't know if she would ever be able to give Luhki back her childhood. Her throat tightened and she wanted to cry again, but she was so tired and there were no more tears left in her. She was physically incapable of crying anymore. Somehow, in one night, her life had gone from the twisted fairytale happy ending that it had been to a nightmarish hell with no escape in sight. She reached down with one hand and stroked Luhki's soft brown hair, wondering to herself where the rewind button was.

Somewhere around an hour later, the suited clone men came streaming down the stairs and through the hall to the front door. They made such a racket as they were leaving, they woke Mariah who sat up and wearily rubbed at her eyes with her fists. The only one who had ever spoken to her broke off from the rest and came into the dining room. "Mrs. Rippner," he said, "Everything has been taken care of…including one SUV and one Lexus found abandoned on the side of the road. And," he glanced at his watch, "as we speak we have men with one Mr. Davey Crook."

"Please, don't kill him." Lisa said, even as thought occurred to her that if she had just let Jackson go off and kill Davey that he wouldn't have been shot by Maggie. He would still be by her side at this very moment.

The man looked up at her, but didn't respond to her request. He went to turn around and Lisa spoke again.

"How will I know if Jackson's okay?" she asked.

"Oh, yes." He said, turning to toward her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small blue cell phone. Lisa recognized it immediately as Jackson's. "You left this upstairs. Keep it with you at all times. That's how we'll contact you."

He handed her the phone and without another word, left the house. Once they were gone, Lisa noticed just how quiet the house really was. She stood up, motioning for Mariah and Luhki to follow her. They walked through the halls of suddenly enormous house, slowly climbing the stairs to the master bedroom. Lisa was more than a little stunned at what she found in her bedroom. It was as if nothing had ever happened. The carpet was bright white, the bed was neatly made, the window had been replaced, her vomit had even been cleaned out of the trashcan. The overwhelming smell of bleach permeated the air; it was so thick that it made Lisa dizzy. She couldn't spend another minute in this house. She ushered her children down the stairs and piled them into Jackson's Jaguar. Within the hour, she was pulling into her father's driveway.

When Joe Reisert opened his door at 4:30 in the morning, he was not expecting to see his daughter standing there with red swollen eyes cradling his three exhausted looking grandchildren, but what he noticed immediately after that was that his son-in-law was absent from the image. Oh no. He pulled them all inside, put the kids to bed and then joined Lisa in the kitchen where she sat at the breakfast counter with her head in her hands. He made her a cup of coffee and sat down across from her. He didn't ask her what had happened. He didn't ask her if she was okay. If she was sure. And when she flew into his arms and started crying, he simply stroked her hair and held her. He let her lean on him. Let her completely break down on him. Up until then, she had been struggling to control herself in front of her children. Granted, she had done a pretty bad job of not letting them know how upset she was, but she had held in a ton all things considered. But now, in the arms of her own 'daddy', she was reduced to a little girl; curled up in his arms, cling to his shirt, and sobbing quietly into his shoulder.

The next morning, Lisa woke up in her old bedroom after she had collapsed into a restless coma-like sleep. For a moment she had forgotten how she had gotten there. She clutched Jackson's cellular phone to her chest as though it was her one and only lifeline. But it had yet to ring. She still wore the same little black dress that she had been wearing last night. It seemed unreal that that hellacious night was really over. Her throat was sore and her head hurt from crying so much; her muscles ached from physical exertion. She crawled out of bed and staggered into the bathroom, stripping off the little black dress as she went. She turned on the water and, as it was warming up, she looked over herself in the mirror. She ran her hands over her freshly bruised body as flashes from the night before came flooding through her mind.

She stepped into the shower, letting the hot water massage her muscles, wincing as it caused her numerous cuts to start stinging. She sank to the bottom of the tub and watched the water swirling around the drain turn red as the blood that was caked on her washed away. She sat there, rocking back and forth for a few minutes, before finally forcing herself to stand up and switch into normal mode. She washed her hair, then lathered her body in soothing circular motions with a loofa sponge. When she got out of the shower, she brushed her teeth and slipped into an old pair of sweats and a tee shirt before tucking Jackson's phone into her pocket and wandering down the stairs to the kitchen.

She found her kids in the kitchen along with her father. Jack Jr. was giggling in his high chair, while Mariah and Luhki both stood on chairs at the counter, covered in flour, as they attempted to help their grandfather make pancakes.

"Mommy, papaw's silly!" Mariah laughed and Lisa was relieved to see them smiling.

But when Luhki looked at her, her face transformed from lighthearted giggles to worry and concern and Lisa had that feeling again; that feeling that told her that Luhki would never again be a child. Lisa fought off the urge to cry again and plastered a bright smile on her face and, hugging her arms tightly across her chest, padded barefoot across the tiled kitchen floor to join her family. "Yes, he is bunny. He is very silly." She said.

Luhki's brow furrowed at her, like she didn't believe the smile, but she soon relaxed and joined back in with her little sister as Lisa went over to join Jack Jr. at the table. Joe turned on the radio that was mounted to the underside of the upper cabinets and the two little girls immediately began squealing and dancing around with the music. Lisa even laughed a little bit at their enthusiasm.

The rest of the day was spent with Lisa watching as her father came up with limitless distractions for her children. Everything from Candyland and Shoots and Ladders to impromptu Hide and Go Seek; not to mention the endless flow of _Disney _movies they watched. Evening came. The sun was just beginning to sink below the horizon, painting the sky with an amazing array of pink, purple, orange, and gold; they had just pushed _Disney's Tarzan _into the DVD player when the cell phone in Lisa's pocket began to ring.

**Author's Note: **Please, please, please, let me know what you think!


	11. Chapter Ten: Death

**Author's Note: **Thanks for the reviews, sorry for the delay and please don't hate me!

**Chapter Ten: Death**

When Lisa heard the ringing of Jackson's phone, her heart stopped. She fumbled through the pocket of her sweatpants in desperation, but the only thing that the voice of the other end of the phone gave her was a rendezvous point. She left the kids with her father and ran from the house as she was, pausing only to pull a pair of tennis shoes onto her feet. Climbing in the Jackson's car, she peeled out of the driveway and ran every 'stop' sign she came to without a second thought.

When she reached the rendezvous point, some old abandoned construction sight, she was greeted by the sight of the same man from the night before; the only one who had really acknowledged her presence in her own house. He walked up to the car and opened the door for her, his face completely expressionless. Lisa unbuckled her seat belt and looked up at him. "Where's Jackson?"

The man responded with, "Mrs. Rippner, don't say a word, just get into the car."

He pulled her from the Jag and led her over to a large black Escalade. Before shoving her into the back of it, he wrapped a blindfold over her eyes. Lisa didn't care. They could do anything that they wanted to do to her as long as they took her to Jackson and he was okay. She wanted so desperately to ask them if he was alive, if he was safe. But, these were the people that Jackson worked for and they had told her not to say anything…so she was gonna keep her mouth shut.

With the blind fold on, her sense of direction had been completely thrown off. She had no idea what way she was heading, where they were going, and the feeling left her breathless. She had already been yanked into a world without Jackson, which no longer made sense to her and now she had had her bearings ripped away from her as well. It was like being trapped under water and not knowing which way was up. She hugged her arms tightly to herself and leaned into the side of the vehicle praying that that would give her some sense of stability, but it really didn't help. Imagine the situation. You're trapped in a car with people whom you know to be deadly, all you can see is blackness, and all you can think about is the image of your husband being shot in the chest. Suddenly, as Lisa was in the midst of a complete and total nervous breakdown, the car came to a rather abrupt stop, sending her slamming into the back of the seat in front of her. She felt two men grab her by both of her upper arms and drag her from the backseat. She wanted to kick; wanted to scream. She wanted to struggle against them, but she was afraid that if she did they would keep her from Jackson. She felt her feet hit solid ground just before the blindfold was ripped from her face and she found herself staring up at a tall brick building that brought involuntarily to her mind the thought of a reform school. Was this where they had taken Jackson? The image of him wounded and all alone in a cold dark cell swam into her mind, and she wanted to throw up. She had never thought of her husband as a vulnerable person, but now suddenly the only image of him that she could conjure up was the helpless look in his pretty eyes as that bitch had shot him in the chest.

"Follow me, please." A voice commanded, breaking her from her train of thought. She was led into the building by the same nameless man from the night before. The same man who had shown some semblance of kindness to her children. The man that she had unwittingly began to trust. They walked through the large, empty lobby and stepped into an elevator. Lisa tucked herself into the corner as they ascended thirty floors to what was apparently their destination. When the doors opened, Nameless led her down a long narrow hallway. There was nothing on the walls and hall was so long that it automatically brought to mind that scene in _The Shining_. Lisa felt a chill run down her spine, but she kept making herself put one foot in front of the other. Finally, Nameless stopped at one of the many office doors and pushed it open. The office was vacant and the walls were as empty as the hallway's. The only sign that someone actually worked in there was the desk and the piles upon piles of papers that sat on top of it. Nameless gestured for her to go in and she did so without hesitation. It was only when the door shut behind her that she began to get a little nervous.

The office was not small, though it was not what you would call large. Aside from the desk, there were three chairs and two bookcases in the office. One heavy leather chair that sat behind the desk, the other two chairs were cloth with wooden arms and legs, like the cheap chairs they have in doctor's office waiting rooms. Lisa did not sit down. The bookcases were filled with thick books with worn out binding, such to the point that the shelves bent beneath their weight. The walls were, as previously said, bare and the room had no windows. It was not the most comfortable place to be enclosed in. Lisa waited anxiously. She shoved both hands back through her hair and tried to still her racing mind. She wondered if they had thrown Jackson into a room similar to this one. Surely they hadn't. He was one of their own; they wouldn't do that to one of their own…would they? Looking around the office, suddenly she wasn't so certain. It was at that moment that the door behind her opened and, much like it had when the cell phone had rang, her heart stopped.

The man who had opened the door was very tall. _Very _tall. She thought for a brief moment that he very well might have been the tallest man she had ever seen. And he was big. Not big as in fat, but built. He looked as though he could pick her up with one hand and break her as he might a match stick. If she hadn't been already, the mere presence of this man made her extremely uncomfortable. He ran a hand back over his cleanly shaved head and Lisa couldn't help but notice how the light reflected off of his ebony scalp. The skin looked very smooth.

"Mrs. Rippner." He acknowledged her. His voice was very deep.

"Yes." Lisa said, fighting to keep her voice calm and under control.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." He said, "You're husband is actually a dear friend of mine."

Lisa couldn't help but smirk. Jackson had friends? The thought had never really occurred to her before. She was pulled back to reality when the man offered her one big hand to shake. Tentatively, she slid her hand into his. It seemed like a child's hand engulfed in his massive palm.

"I'm Dr. Bilks." He introduced himself.

At that moment, Lisa felt as though nothing could have surprised her anymore. "So," she began, "you must know how Jackson is. Please, tell me. I don't know how much more of this I can take."

"I'm not going to lie to you, Mrs. Rippner." He said and Lisa stopped breathing, "When Jackson got here, he was dead on arrival."

Lisa's knees buckled and gave out, letting her drop to the floor with a thud. Her breathing turned into short, quick bursts and her stomach began contracting violently with an unexplainable pain from deep within it. The office and the man in front of her started to go blurry as her eyes filled with tears.

"We spent a full ten minutes trying to resuscitate him…" he was saying, but Lisa couldn't hear anymore. All she had heard was that Jackson was dead. A barrage of memories assaulted her pained mind as she hugged her arms tightly across her stomach. Jackson, the first time she had ever seen him standing behind her in the airport check in line; his handsome smile as he laughed with her at the airport bar. The way he looked leaned against the wall when she first saw him again over a year later at her hotel. His arms wrapped around her in protection; the only place she had ever really felt safe. The way his eyes had sparkled the first time they had made love. Their wedding day. The way he had smiled when Luhki had been born. Jackson rolling around on the floor playing with their kids. Jackson smiling. Jackson laughing. It was interesting that with all the bad things that her husband had done, the memories to come first and foremost to her mind were the ones where he was expressing joy and love. He was Jackson…her Jackson…and now he was gone. Her mind immediately began the denial process. No. No. Jackson was not dead. It wasn't possible. It simply was _not _possible. He was Jackson Rippner for crying out loud! One fucking shot couldn't kill Jackson! He was beyond that kind of thing!

"You're lying!" she seethed up at the man from her position on the floor. Insulting a man of his size may have not been the smartest thing in the world to do, but at the moment Lisa didn't give a _damn_ about the world.

"I assure you, Mrs. Rippner, I'm telling you nothing but the truth."

Lisa dropped her face into one hand and let out one loud sob, before turning her tear streaked face up to this man she barely knew. She needed to see him. She needed to prove that this wasn't real; that they had made a mistake. "Can I see his body?" she asked.

"Body?" the man asked, "Mrs. Rippner, have you not been listening to me?"

Oh God, Lisa thought, what had they done to Jackson's body?

"I should have warned you about Lisa, Bilks." A familiar voice said from the doorway, drawing Lisa's attention. She hadn't even heard the door open. "Sometimes, she doesn't pay attention when she should." Jackson was standing there, casually leaned against the door jam as though it were the most natural thing in the world for him to be doing at that moment.

A whole whirlwind of emotions washed over Lisa as she sat there on her knees looking at her husband who was, as it seemed, very much alive. In less than a second, she was on her feet and had slung her arms around his neck. Jackson let out a small yelp of pain, but didn't try to pull away and Lisa didn't let go.

"Rippner, what the hell are you doin' out of bed?" Dr. Bilks said, but there was a smile on his wide face.

"I heard my wife was here." Jackson said.

Lisa had pulled away slightly and she could take in his appearance. He looked wonderful to her, but in actuality, he looked horrible…like a walking corpse. He was pale with dark circles under his eyes, which themselves were bloodshot. He wore a button up shirt open so she could see the bandages on his chest and stomach and at the sight of the blood that had seeped through the gauze, her heart ached. Not as much as it had been two minutes earlier, but it still ached. She looked up into his big pretty eyes, bloodshot or not, and smiled at him. Her chin quivered as she cupped his face in her hands and pulled him to her for a kiss. Just a gentle, loving peck…but it was chalk full of every emotion she had been through in the past twenty or so hours. She knew he understood when he lightly tugged a small strand of her hair between two fingers. A single tear slid down her cheek and he wiped it away with his thumb.

"I thought you died." Lisa said in a very small voice. They were the first words she had said since Jackson had entered the room.

"Didn't you hear? I did." Jackson chuckled, but winced with the pain the slight laughter brought along with it.

"Don't joke." Lisa said, "I didn't know what I was gonna do."

"Hey," Jackson said, pulling her to him again, ignoring the throbbing soreness in his abdomen, "I'm not goin' anywhere. What? You think you can get rid of me that easy?"

This time, the kiss was not just a peck. Lisa pulled him to her, devouring his mouth with her own. She didn't want to not be touching him, so terrified that she would wake up and it would all be a dream and that he would vanish into the air like smoke.

"I love you." They were both saying in between kisses. It was an uncharacteristically tender moment, but under the circumstances, it couldn't have felt more right.

Lisa broke away from the kiss, but she made sure to keep her hands on him. Tears were steadily streaming down her face, but they weren't completely hopeless tears as they had been earlier. "Can you come home, now?" she asked Jackson, the looked to the doctor, "Can he come home, now?"

Dr. Bilks looked uneasy with the idea, but the look on Lisa's face got to him. "I suppose. I really shouldn't let him, but Rippner's a stubborn ass and I know that if I keep him here, I'll never hear the end of it." At this, Jackson smiled, sort of. It came out as more of a grimace. "But, he has to stay in bed for at least the next two weeks and no…" his eyes traveled back and forth between the two of them, "_strenuous_ activity for at least three."

"No promises." Jackson said with a smirk.

"Get outta here." Bilks said and walked around behind his desk.

Nameless was waiting for them outside the office door. He started leading the two of them down the hall. The mere act of walking seemed to be taking every ounce of Jackson's strength, so Lisa attached herself to his side, his arm slung over her shoulders, she acted as his crutch, trying desperately to support his weight. Every step he took, his face winced and contorted into a new expression of pain. When they got into the elevator, Jackson propped himself up in the corner, Lisa remaining at his side.

The same suited men that had driven her to the building put her back in the SUV. They earned a look from Jackson when they tied the blindfold over her eyes, but he knew the procedure and didn't argue with them. Besides, fighting over such a small thing would have taken too much damn energy. The whole time though, Lisa clung to his hand like a child who was terrified of being separated from a parent. She kept waiting for Jackson to strike up conversation with the men in the car, but he never did. Throughout the entire ride back to the construction site, Jackson kept one hand intertwined with Lisa's. She wasn't complaining though. From the moment he had walked into the doctor's office, she hadn't had any desire to lose contact with him. As long as she was touching him, she knew that he was really there.

The vehicle came to a stop with a jolt and Lisa felt herself being pulled out once again. Her hand was ripped from Jackson's grasp and she let out a small scream and tried to get back to him. Large arms restrained her, holding her in place. The blindfold was pulled from her eyes and she saw that two other men were helping Jackson out of the large car. Once his feet were on the ground, he fixed the man who had his arms around Lisa with his infamous Jackson glare.

"You can let go of my wife, now." He growled.

As soon as she was free, Lisa flew to Jackson's side and he shifted his weight onto her, keeping his gaze fixed on the suited men until they were back in their car and driving away. He turned his gaze to Lisa, looking at her with such a weakened, longing expression, she could've stood there with him for the entire night. "Let's go home." He said.

Lisa nodded, helping him around to the passenger side of the car. Once he was in his seat, Lisa practically sprinted back around to the driver's side. Jackson had already reclined his seat back as far as it would go and was lying back almost completely flat. He had buttoned three buttons of his shirt, but after that he had found that he just didn't have the energy for something as mundane as buttoning his shirt. Lisa glanced over at her husband. Even in his weakened state, he looked positively beautiful. She gave in to steering the car with one hand, reaching the free one over and running it through Jackson's hair. His eyes had dropped closed and he seemed to be resting. A fresh batch of tears welled up inside of her. She was so sick of crying. It felt like all she had done for the past twenty four hours had been cry and cry and cry some more. She didn't want to cry anymore. But she couldn't help but think about how she had almost lost the most important man in her life.

She smiled at him, though his eyes were closed and he could not see her, before looking back to the road. She drove the long way back to her father's house in silence, but every now and then, she would reach over and run her hand over Jackson's hair. She needed to keep reassuring herself that he was really there. She still couldn't quite bring herself to believe that he was okay. Every time she touched him, she let out a small sigh of relief. He stirred slightly under her fingertips, but she never pulled her hand away. Just smiled and brushed her thumb over his forehead.

She guided the car into her father's driveway and gently reached over and squeezed Jackson's thigh to wake him. His eyes stirred for a second before his eyelids fluttered open. Lisa hurried from her seat to the other side of the car to help her husband stand. They moved incredibly slowly to the front door, which swung open just as Lisa was reaching for the doorknob. Joe rushed to Jackson's other side to his daughter and son in law.

"Good Lord, boy." Joe said, "Who'd you get yourself shot by this time?"

Jackson chuckled, "The babysitter."

"What?" Joe asked.

"Later, dad." Lisa said.

They hauled Jackson upstairs, taking each step very slowly in attempt to keep Jackson's discomfort to a minimum. When they got him to the bedroom, he practically fell into the bed.

"All right," Lisa said, straightening from where she was bent over helping Jackson get comfortable and turning to her father, ""Better let him rest, daddy. We'll see you in the morning."

"Okay, honey." Joe said, leaning forward and kissing his daughter on the forehead. "Get some sleep, son."

Jackson waved a hand in acknowledgement, his eyes already closed. As soon as the bedroom door was shut, Lisa snuggled onto the bed by his side.

"Where are my kids?" Jackson asked.

"Asleep. You can see them in the morning."

Jackson nodded. "Give me a kiss."

Lisa smiled and used her toes to push herself higher up on the bed and kissed his lips. Jackson's hand slid down her back and squeezed her bottom. Lisa laughed and pulled away from the kiss.

"Hey, now. The doctor said no strenuous activity." She scolded over a smile.

"Leese," Jackson said, his tone dead serious, "all that means is that you have to do all the work."

Lisa laughed.

"I, for one," Jackson continued, "am willing to make that sacrifice."

"Jackson, baby, I love you. Now, shut up and go to sleep."

**Author's Note: **Okay, did anybody really think that I was gonna let Jackson die? What kind of a heartless bitch do you think I am? Just kidding. But, do tell me what you think! There only one more chapter to go, but it won't be posted until I am completely happy with it so bear with me for a little bit longer, kay? Thanks:)


	12. Epilogue

**Author's Note: **Well, here's the epilogue. It's a little shorter than the rest of the chapters, butsometimes more is just more. To answer a question I recieved from a few reviewers, at the moment, I am not planning another sequel to this story. I am thinking on a plot for a new _Red Eye _fic, so if you're interested in reading it, just keep checking back. I am also working on a one shot of how Jackson from this series proposed, so that should be up soon. Be sure to let me know how you like the ending!

Oh, and JeanieBeanie33- Oh yeah I have the DVD. I got it right when it came out, and I mean _right _when it came out. As in, I went to Walmart at midnight as they were stocking it and bought it. As for my favorite scene, I'd be hard pressed to choose because I could spend hours analyzing this film frame by frame and every move that the characters make. Cillian Murphy and Rachel Macadams create such complex, layered, and honest characters. But, put a gun to my head and I would have to say the bathroom scene. Cillian's weird mixture of jealousy, pleading, and brute force is so complicated and raw (and masochist that I am, I found it unbelievably sexy. I would totally let him bang me up against the wall...ahem...anyways...) and, if you can tear your eyes away from him in that scene long enough to watch Rachel, her face and the array of emotions she goes through at that moment...her performance is brilliant. There's no other word for it.

Anyways...on to the story!

**Epilogue:**

The steering wheel of the brand new four door BMW beamer slid through Lisa's fingers as she guided it into the parking lot of the large two story brown brick building. With her having decided that SUV's were just too top heavy, Jackson had bought her the beamer to replace her totaled Mercedes. While he was at it, he had traded in his Jag for the new model that had just come out. When he showed it to Lisa, she had stood there staring at it in silence for almost a full two minutes before asking, "What's the difference?"

Jackson had simply smiled and kissed her temple affectionately as the misogynist in him thought about how women just didn't get it when it came to cars.

Lisa threw the car into park and hopped out of the driver's side, her eyes taking in the full size of the building in front of her. She tucked her keys into the pocket of her jeans and walked around to the other side of the car to join Jackson as he climbed from the passenger seat. He looked so uncommonly casual. It was one of the rare occasions he was actually wearing jeans with a white tee shirt and a blue button up hanging open over it. There was a reason for his casualness though. He had promised not to take any jobs for the week and Lisa had taken the same week off from her work so that they could get settled into their new house. After everything that had happened, Lisa realized that a new carpet would simply not suffice. They had lived with her father for Jackson's recovery and as soon as he was up and about, he bought her a new house in a completely different neighborhood. They were taking the week to move everything in. He was moving exceptionally well considering not three months ago he had been laid out by a bullet wound to the chest. He held out his arm and Lisa absently cuddled into the nook that he offered to her.

"Not a very happy looking place, is it?" she said, shoving her sunglasses back into her hair.

"No, it's not." Jackson agreed, his eyes subconsciously searching the building for all possible escape routes.

It was about that moment that Luhki leapt from the backseat of the car, _My Little Pony _backpack in hand. They were standing outside of Henderson Elementary School. It was Luhki's first day of kindergarten. Mariah and Jack Jr. were back at the house with their new babysitter…Joe. Hard as it was to believe, Lisa had developed a distrust of younger women. Jackson found that quite a bit amusing, though he would never admit that to her face.

They had made the decision that they wanted their kids to have as normal an existence as they possibly could. True, Henderson was a private school, but it was still not homeschooling. They had both agreed that the kids would go to school, private school had been Lisa's call. "Better education." She had said. The thing that they had yet to come to a clear resolution about was whether or not to send Luhki to a psychiatrist. With everything that she had been through, they both agreed that it would probably do her good to talk about it with someone and get it all out in the open. But, then there were the questions such as how much would she unknowingly let slip about her father and his line of work…that and Lisa didn't think that seeing a psychiatrist when you're five technically constitutes as normal. They had argued adamantly over the issue, fighting tooth and nail and each one switching sides more often than they blinked. It was just a complicated issue with a lot of complicated questions and in the end, all that they knew was that they wanted their daughter to be happy.

Cynthia, on the other hand, had started to see a therapist about her issues of late. She had been married to a man that it turned out she had barely known. She had been vowing to spend her life with a man who had been molesting her best friend's five year old daughter. It wasn't exactly something she could take an Advil and sleep off. Hell, it wasn't something she could a dose of arsenic and sleep off. The thought of what he had done to Luhki, to Jackson and Lisa, to her…it would resonate for the rest of her life she was certain. Lisa had assured her countless times that she hadn't been to blame; that there was no way she could have possibly known what was going on. Cynthia just couldn't believe that. She believed that somewhere in the back of her mind, she should have seen what Rick was doing. Ever since she started seeing her therapist, she had been making excellent progress, though. She had finally started seeing Rick for the sick bastard that he was and not as a mistake that she had made. Lisa was glad for that.

There was someone else who had taken a keen interest in Cynthia, as well. Davey. Yep, Davey with his punk rocker hair and sharp business suits was still around. Apparently, Jackson's company had seen him as a fairly miniscule threat that wasn't even worth the resources of doing away with, so they had let him live. Jackson, on the other hand, had been harder to convince. He had wanted to torture Davey for hours and then kill him very slowly, but after much negotiating with Lisa, he settled for something else. The next time he saw Davey, Jackson walked right up to him and punched him in the face. It had been at the Lux, of course. Jackson had come to take Lisa to dinner for her break, spotted Davey, and more or less zeroed in on him. When Lisa saw the terrified look on Davey's young face as he had seen Jackson stalking toward him at a determined pace, she had almost cracked up. Davey had looked to her for help to which she had simply shrugged her shoulders. A moment later, Davey had been laid out on the flat of his back with a massive headache and blood pouring from his nose and mouth. Jackson had broken Davey's nose which seemed to satisfy him well enough, for the time being anyway. But, back to Davey. Basically, fickle thing that he was, the second he had laid eyes on Cynthia, all thoughts of Lisa had been forgotten, much to her delight. Maybe Jackson had scared the hell out of the poor kid. Maybe he liked redheads. Then again, maybe he just had a thing for unavailable women, because Cynthia sure as hell wanted nothing to do with men for at least the next fifteen years, or so she said. Lisa was fairly certain that her vow of celibacy wouldn't last that long. So, basically, for the past two months, Davey has been pursuing Cynthia relentlessly and she's just been trying to shake the poor boy off. Lisa would never admit it, but she found that whole situation hilarious. Cynthia had always been the one hopelessly in love, so it was enjoyable to watch a man stumbling after her like a hapless puppy dog.

"Okay, I'm ready!" Luhki chirped up at her parents, securing her backpack onto her shoulders.

"Yes, you are." Lisa said, kneeling down and tipping her lips with her index finger. Luhki leaned forward, pecked her mother on the lips and hugged her neck. Lisa stood back up and it was Jackson's turn.

"Okay, baby," he said, "you be good and listen to the teacher, okay?"

Luhki nodded obediently.

"And if any of the other kids bother you, you just get daddy their names and home addresses."

Lisa swatted him on the back of the head, "Or, you just tell the teacher and she'll take care of it."

Jackson shared a knowing smile with his five year old daughter, "Yeah, or you could just do that."

Luhki laughed, hugged and kissed her father, then scampered away to go to class for the very first time. She was overly excited as all children are on their very first day. She felt like a big, not knowing how in the years to come she would grow to loath waking up and going to school. But, then, none of us know that at first, do we?

Lisa and Jackson watched as Luhki disappeared into the building.

"Can't we just go with her?" Jackson asked, his eyes locked on the door that his daughter had just vanished through.

Lisa chuckled. Jackson was such a cute, albeit menacing, protective daddy. God help the poor bastard who starts dating their daughters when they get old enough. She'll have to tie Jackson to stairs. She grinned and smacked him on the rear. "Come on. We have a house to put together and you have some very heavy boxes to lift! Doesn't that sound like fun?"

"Oh, can't you see the enthusiasm?" He said. Lisa began walking back to her side of the car as Jackson peered over the roof at her, "Leese, can't we just hire some movers?"

"No!" Lisa said, opening her door and stepping up onto the side of the car to look Jackson in the eye, "It's more fun this way!"

"Explain to me how it's more fun this way." Jackson countered.

Lisa flashed him a wicked grin, "Because, you'll get all hot and sweaty and salty and sexy and it'll just make me want to drag to the bedroom and let you ravage me."

"The kids will be there."

"Never stopped us before."

"Your dad will be there."

"Ooh," Lisa winked at him, "A challenge." With that, she slid in the driver's seat. Jackson couldn't help but bite down on his lower lip. She drove him crazy…in a good war. He slid into his own seat as Lisa started up the car and maneuvered them out onto the street. Then, she navigated the car back to their new home where Joe was setting up a sprinkler in the backyard for the kids to play in. As she drove, Lisa felt Jackson put his hand on her leg and give her thigh a gentle affectionate squeeze. In that moment, she felt a strange sort of calm wash over her. They weren't the conventional family, to be sure. They were, however, a family. They loved each other and took care of each other. Jackson let out a deep breath and leaned back into his seat, bringing his arm up from her leg to rest at the back of her neck. Lisa leaned into his touch as he absently began massaging little circles in the muscles of her neck with his thumb. She would never get over how good Jackson made her feel. She had known ever since that day in the parking lot that any hope of a healthy relationship with a normal man was shot all to hell, so what had she done? She had found Jackson Rippner. Definitely not a normal man, probably not a healthy relationship, but it was theirs. Times weren't always happy, but that was really just the way of the world. It wouldn't be long before Jackson was rushing off again in the middle of the night without telling her where he's going or what he's going to be doing. She would cry for fear of what was happening to him; spend countless nights without sleep because she would be too busy wondering whether he was alive or dead or on his way home. He'd come home all banged up and bruised and Lisa would take care of him. That was their life together. When you married a man like Jackson, you had to learn that certain dangers were in the job description, sign the waver, say the vows, and take him for better or worse. But, Lisa thought as she pulled onto her new street in her new car with the same man she had always loved, everything would work itself out; everything would be okay…in the end.

The End

**Author's Note: **That's it. Please review and tell me what you think! You know how much it means to me!


End file.
